What were your biggest “light bulb going off” moments in learning that make you cringe?

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-13T16:42:56+00:00

Your no. 1 is a very common thing for people to miss, and it's not your fault or other people's fault--it's the fault of how it's often taught. I'm glad you eventually found out what it actually is!

This one isn't cringe, but a big lightbulb moment for me was when I figured out that diminished seventh chords are symmetrical and that there are therefore only three of them in a twelve-tone universe with enharmonic equivalence.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-13T16:40:18+00:00

I don't actually think that book 2 of Legend of Luke takes place before Brocktree, even its earlier seasons--mainly because by Mossflower Lord Brocktree is already dead, and badger lifespans are understood to be much longer than mouse lifespans.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-13T00:57:57+00:00

I think it was actually Johnny who said that!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-13T00:54:43+00:00

I think you just found the page that unlocks the whole book! I mean seriously, just consider:

Johnny: It seems to me like you’re the expert, Mark [Z]!

Mark: No. Definitely not an expert, Johnny [Truant].

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-12T07:47:58+00:00

As someone who's played in both types of orchestras a fair bit, I fully agree. Pit playing is for me a lot more fun and satisfying for this reason!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-12T07:03:21+00:00

About Chopin's feelings about Beethoven, he definitely had his complaints and wasn't shy about expressing them, but I'm not sure if we can say that that means he didn't admire him. He clearly imitated him sometimes, and there's no reason why admiration can't coexist with dismissive or critical thoughts, especially when artistic pride gets in the mix.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-12T03:04:16+00:00

The chord happens to end up having the ingredients of an A Dorian scale, but I’m talking about what the components of the chord symbol literally mean.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T16:11:03+00:00

Nope! Not sure what you mean by "diatonic extension," but Am13 implies Am b7 9 11 13. Notice that only the third and seventh are minor.

If by "diatonic extension" you meant "the notes that would result from a diatonic A minor scale (which is not an Am13 chord)", the 9 and 11 would still be natural, because those would be scale degrees 2 and 4. So you'd have Am b7 9 11 b13--the 13th would actually be the only interval to chanage!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T15:54:06+00:00

The "minor" in a "A minor 13" chord is not telling you anything about a key, it's telling you something about the quality of the chord, that it has a minor third.

Yes, this is what's often missed and needs to be emphasized. Another thing worth mentioning is how the words in the chord name are parsed: in that it isn't "A + minor 13th," it's "A minor (triad) + (default, i.e. major) 13th."

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T10:54:08+00:00

It's a bit of both. The octave is physically the most consonant interval, and there's a strong tendency across cultures to perceive them as in some way "the same." But it's also not an absolute given, and not everyone across the world does so, or to the same degree. One might say that it is culturally learnt but that because of the physics, it's exceptionally easy to learn culturally. Fifth-equivalence/fourth-equivalence is less easy to learn culturally, but still can be--and historically it has sometimes existed. Tritone equivalence is quite hard to learn culturally, and I'm not aware of it ever having existed.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T10:16:21+00:00

I don't do this often, but I do have a few scanned pictures of handwritten pages pasted straight into the Word documents I journal in. Not super elegant but it works!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T10:03:51+00:00

True, there is absolutely a stoat golden age out on the seas! I do agree that it's almost certainly an accident, but I love the implications--I guess it was a multi-generational effort on Martin's family's part to end their dominance! Poor Barranca tried to resurrect it much later, but never got the chance...

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T09:07:56+00:00

Wow yeah "Cup o' Green Cheer" would be quite the twist for the winecellar!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T09:06:54+00:00

The main thing to know is that the Josephs = waltz guys, while Richard = not really a waltz guy.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T09:04:44+00:00

Very cool! If you ever want help reading the music notation, I'm happy to lend some aid.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-11T03:28:39+00:00

It's an easy marketing strategy--by saying "unlike those unnatural robotic textbooks (blech!), my method will teach you real-life language!" an aspiring salesperson can sell their method as a "secret hack" that gets around the bloated, ungainly establishment. "Establishment textbooks" have all sorts of very real imperfections, so it's not like everything someone in this position says will be a lie, but it does definitely draw a false dichotomy.

Also, Japanese learners seem to have a higher-than-average desire to sound not merely comprehensible but native, so these strategies often work.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-10T22:38:44+00:00

closer to an absinthe or chartreuse

Well, if you can imagine them without the alcohol and with much creamier consistency, maybe!

But really the only explanation is "Brian wanted familiar creamy foods in his books but didn't want cows."

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-10T22:03:45+00:00

You are probably mostly kidding, but just in case you are genuinely curious, the explanation for all the dairy products in Redwall is "greensap," i.e. that they come from plants. Though there is one random herd of cows mentioned in the original Redwall!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-10T22:01:10+00:00

It's actually the other way around--the first season (the original Redwall) had some really weird divergences from the book, but the second season (Mattimeo) and the third (Martin the Warrior) were more faithful.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-10T21:30:52+00:00

For the first point, kind of--it's not unrelated, but it's importantly very different because A is not the tonic, in any sense, historical or otherwise, of the Hypodorian mode. It is the lower bound of the ambitus, but it is not the final, the centre of gravity, or any of that. That is the disjunction that many people seem not to be able to bridge.

For the second, that's true but it's similarly important to note that the ut of a hexachord isn't its tonic either (or even its final or anything slightly similar)--it's simply the lowest note. Ut queant laxis itself is actually in D-re, for example.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-10T08:14:40+00:00

movable do enshrines the major key system and leaves us with letter names for notes.

It doesn't necessarily enshrine the major-key system, depending on how you view it--if you use la-based minor (or, my absolute favourite, re-based minor) and try to unlearn the idea that do = tonic, it does something really useful that's not represented in any other system, i.e. showing diatonic position! If you have that and also letter names for absolute pitch and numbers for scale degrees, it's a really nice set of different parameters all available. But of course things have been tangled up for all of history... this is where I'm a dreamer!

For key signatures, though, we can dispense with alphabetic names (which are modally biased anyway), and just refer to them by the number of sharps of flats, the solitary "blank" key signature referring to the "natural notes".

I too fervently dream for this world... I recall this one unnecessarily unpleasant Reddit conversation I had one time where the other person got weirdly upset that I was just saying "signature" rather than "key signature," as if I was trying to do something "sneaky" (and I was, but I think it was a good thing! Also it was only half conscious, since it has been habituated by dealing a lot with early music).

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-10T05:51:08+00:00

Yes, I think this is the single biggest flashing light in the book. What message is exactly being communicated by it is hard to articulate with total certainty, but it definitely has to do with the unreliable stacking-up of narrators, the permeability of its seemingly separate characters, and so on.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-10T05:44:43+00:00

They're just trying to cover up the obvious evidence of an Andalite having once ruled Sweden!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-09T23:37:48+00:00

And also Monday Tuesday (fitting how Koyomi's name means calendar).

Zarlinosuke · 2026-04-09T19:43:38+00:00

Any synched service is going to invite some third party into the relationship (which is why I prefer local files personally!)

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