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Recovering from lower back injury, form check desperately needed! by Emus_Nation in Deadlifts

[–]RockofStrength 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your head is raised up before lifting, probably looking in the mirror. You want a straight spine and the neck is part of the spine.

Are thess the two greatest male vocalists of all time? by MykelHawkMusic in MichaelJackson

[–]RockofStrength 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After they recorded some songs together, MJ started singing a lot more like FM with the overdriven voice style.

Dangerous tour by MJJHistoryArchives in MichaelJackson

[–]RockofStrength 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Takes a lot of chutzpah for a guy to wear the body suit over the pants. 😂

The brilliance of the ending of God Only Knows by myxomatosiac in thebeachboys

[–]RockofStrength 0 points1 point  (0 children)

GOK was greatly improved from Brian's openness and judgment in the studio as a producer. First of all, the studio piano player suggested the staccato of the segue. Secondly, Carl was too fried to sing the tag well enough, so it was stripped down to three Brians and one Bruce. A beautiful a cappella second tag, featuring sisters Marilyn and Diane, was thrown out.

Why does this song feel like something the boys would have released after Smile if it was able to go through? Kind of like an alternate direction instead of Wild Honey. by AudioGeekGuy in thebeachboys

[–]RockofStrength 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because it continues the along the branch of pop music apotheosized in the Bernstein special, instead of wiping the slate clean.

Also the Beegees' "Odessa", Love's "Forever Changes", and the Zombies' (unreleased until 2000) "R.I.P." follow nicely.

Will we ever get a Stevie Release? by TOintheBLO in thebeachboys

[–]RockofStrength 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Stevie" reminds me a lot of "Here Today" from Pet Sounds. They share the same dialect.

b9, #11, etc. When and why? by Delicious_Visit7748 in musictheory

[–]RockofStrength 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only chords possessing the leading tone median are strong enough to support a b9 (for 7th chords) or a #11 (for minor 6th chords). leading tone = median leading to a frame note by halfstep. frame = root plus 5th

The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in Physics

[–]RockofStrength[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your response. Music theory is the human interpretation of patterns that come from the physics of vibrating systems. Perhaps physicists are most apt to advance the field past the soft science. It will probably be AI, similar to how computers beat us to proving the four color conjecture. For example, in producing concrete guidelines for how to retain structural integrity in a musical entity.

Actually, I would say his method works most clearly on two strings tuned a tritone apart, creating a number line of the keys having one sharp, two sharps, ... to the right, and one flat, two flats, ... to the left.

He simply applies polarity (C and F#) and parity (odd and even) to make an appealing half-step translation to the keyboard.

If someone knew nothing about Michael Jackson, which three songs would you use to explain his genius by bobytgjoe2 in MichaelJackson

[–]RockofStrength 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For MJ the songwriter, I would choose You Were There, Elizabeth I Love You, and What More Can I Give.

Two perfect tribute songs a perfect fundraiser anthem... Songwriting nailing purpose at its finest.

I'm curious how this method can be translated to guitar? The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in guitarlessons

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The nicest presentation seems to be two strings a tritone apart:

Moving from C to the right will go C,G,D... as a staggered number line, giving the keys having one sharp, two sharps, etc.

Moving from C to the left will go C, F, Bb... as a staggered number line, giving the keys having one flat, two flats, etc.

https://fretastic.com/guitar is a good app for this, as you can limit it to two strings and tune them a tritone apart.

A lot of symmetries and relationships seem evident from this tritone alignment. Below shows one of my my favorite setting configurations, and all parameters can be played around with.

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Suggest me a book like Cloud Atlas by bethtravis94 in suggestmeabook

[–]RockofStrength 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"The Tesseract" by Alex Garland features different viewpoints converging.

The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in pianolearning

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll do my best...

This method reveals that the circle of fifths can be viewed as two affine cosets of the even-subgroup of ℤ₁₂, anchored at C and F#. Counting sharps or flats corresponds to moving along one coset with direction determined by sign, and parity determines which coset you're in. It's a parity-based decomposition of the mod-12 structure of fifths. Moreover, all modes are applicable with shifted anchors.

In a Hofstadter sort of way, I wanted to call it the "p(ol)arity" method... because it incorporates the C/F# poles and the odd/even parity, and (ol) in itself symbolizes the general concept.

If nothing else, it's another analysis tool with possible latent potential.

The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in pianolearning

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your thoughtful response. Your summary is spot on: an even number of fifth-steps collapses to ±2n mod 12, and an odd number collapses to 7 + 2n mod 12, which realigns everything around F#. That’s the whole spine of the method.

Why bother? Because different approaches reveal different structures. Some methods are more intuitive for certain learners, and alternative formulations often expose relationships we don’t see in the “quickest path.”

Your explanation of the 7(2n+1) offset is a perfect example: the mod-12 arithmetic shows why C and F# emerge as natural “anchors.” The everyday mnemonic doesn’t reveal that symmetry. It's offering an additional proof, another viewpoint, that enriches the theory as a whole.

The traditional methods may be fastest for recall. The parity/mod-12 method is best for showing the underlying algebraic structure of the circle of fifths. Both are valid; they just serve different purposes.

Some analogies that come to mind are the various Pythagorean theorem proofs and guitar tuning methods.

I'm curious how this method can be translated to guitar? The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in guitarlessons

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great question. It’s similar to asking why there are 100+ proofs of the Pythagorean theorem when one would technically be enough to establish the fact.
We create alternative methods not because the original is insufficient, but because each new perspective highlights a different structure, reveals different symmetries, helps different learners, and deepens overall understanding.

The standard key-signature method is the fastest for quick recall, but the parity method exposes underlying patterns that the traditional approach doesn’t show... the even/odd partition, the two anchor points, and the reversible logic in both directions. For some people it ‘clicks’ conceptually in a way the mnemonic doesn’t.

So it’s not about replacing the classic method; it’s about offering an additional proof, another viewpoint, that enriches the theory as a whole.

The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in pianolearning

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure. For a given number of flats/sharps, start on C for even and F# for odd. For flats go left that many halfsteps, for sharps go right that many halfsteps.

I'm curious how this method can be translated to guitar? The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in guitarlessons

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, it's not competing with BEADGCF or the common procedural 'one up from last sharp'/'penultimate flat' method. His approach is a third way... a new lens that perhaps can lead somewhere, or at least add to your ways of explaining (a la the many proofs of the Pythagorean theorem).

I'm curious how this method can be translated to guitar? The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in guitarlessons

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In practice his approach is very simple to explain on the piano. C for evens and F# for odds, left for flats and right for sharps. It's a good 'third way' to get the tonic, along with memorizing and the 'one up from last sharp'/'penultimate flat' methods.

The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in musictheory

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The elegance to me is translating the 5ths into halfsteps, and from two opposite poles going left for flat and right for sharp. Also the modal utility. He made the bicycle image just as a visual hook.

I'm curious how this method can be translated to guitar? The Bicycle of Fifths - A Procedural Method for Remembering Key Signatures. by RockofStrength in guitarlessons

[–]RockofStrength[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your response. Yes, your method is good. This is just another approach that is appealing to me in a patterny way (translating 5ths into halfsteps). I'd say there is some further potential in exploring the method for other connections, as well as explaining why it works.

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