The Cipher System?

[dev4net]

First of all, I want to thank StoneDragon from the bottom of my heart for all of the amazing work he's done on the guitar lessons section of the site. I spend a lot of time there and I'm a better musician because of it. On to my question ...

In my quest for more theory knowledge, I came across this site that approaches music theory from a completely different angle and I wanted to know what your thoughts are about it. The main site is http://www.thecipher.com and the best place to get an overview is http://www.thecipher.com/3_minute_intro.html. As a programmer, what I've read so far, is really appealing to me, but I don't want to commit to it if it's not held in high regard by the theory gurus.

I know there isn't just one way to approach theory and I should probably use whatever works best for me. I was just curious what your thoughts are. Thanks.

-= Don =-


[This message has been edited by dev4net (edited December 11, 2003).]

[muzikpblue]

Well I perused the 3 minute intro thingy and it looks logical but I wonder how easy it would be to communicate with people who have learned it the traditional way.

Like if we were going to play in Eb minor would you be converting numbers in your head to figure out what to do?

Of course who wants to play in Eb minor anyway.

[killapede]

it looks like a good way to improve your knowledge of music, and gain more persepective on theory. but as the guy above me stated, it will probably be useless if you are trying to communicate with other musicians. i would learn real theory first (the basics are really easy to learn.) and then start looking into that other stuff.

[dev4net]

Upon further inspection (albeit not complete) I've noticed TheCipher gives no regard to music notation. While his reasons for this are interesting, I consider music notation right there with theory in terms of importance as an accomplished musician. So I won't be using it solely, but I like killapede's suggestion of using it as a supplemental resource to give me deeper understanding from a different perspective.

[JonR]

The point about any music theory is that is a language for communication, a way of exchanging musical information between musicians, other than actually playing music.

We can all invent our own systems, our own ways of making music make sense to us. It can help us organise our own musical brains, but (even if it works for us) it's not a lot of use if no one else knows what the hell we're talking about!:-)

I advise you stick with the standard system - it has its faults, but it's a shared language.

JonR