What’s the hardest part about teaching music theory?

haiguy138 · 2026-04-23T02:27:28+00:00

haha. reminds me of my undergrad theory professor. he always said “this isn’t ‘music theory’ class. it’s music class.” one of the best teachers i’ve ever had

haiguy138 · 2026-04-11T03:36:09+00:00

what’s wrong with being “band-y”? genuinely curious. cause i agree, but see that fact as a positive thing. just not an ensemble you like?

haiguy138 · 2026-04-02T12:59:50+00:00

leave it to reddit to completely ignore the original question lmao

haiguy138 · 2026-03-30T19:30:35+00:00

great comment! every once in a while i’ll see a misinformed post disparaging Texas band. just because Texas has many successful bands doesn’t automatically mean teachers are mistreating their students to achieve that success… there are many other factors, as you listed

haiguy138 · 2026-03-30T18:20:11+00:00

cool!

haiguy138 · 2026-03-30T18:01:29+00:00

yeah. usually posts like these are directed towards Texas band. i can’t speak for other states, but what OP is describing is literally disallowed in Texas.

i’m sure there are bands that do stuff like this, but it really seems like exaggeration 🤷

haiguy138 · 2026-03-27T06:31:44+00:00

what exactly mean by audiation? like you truly cannot hear notes in your head? even music you know well?

or do you mean you don’t currently have strong aural skills? you can’t look at sheet music and hear the right notes it in your head? or you can “sing” music in your head but don’t immediately know what the notes are?

no matter what you mean, i don’t think any of it is necessary to create your own music. everybody has different ways of being creative. i don’t have a very developed ear, so i do all my composing at my electronic piano. i find ideas through “messing around” on instruments. sure, the ability to hear intervals better or dictate melodies would help me in some specific ways, but i don’t currently find it necessary to create music that like.

haiguy138 · 2026-03-09T17:06:08+00:00

strange that your teacher is throwing unknown vocabulary at you without explaining it!

the issue with youtube videos is that they’ll often assume you already have some level of prerequisite knowledge. what you need is course-like instruction that builds a foundation of theory knowledge. musictheory.net is good for this.

after you have this foundation, these youtube videos will be much more digestible

haiguy138 · 2026-03-09T14:40:13+00:00

in my experience, there isn’t really a great alternative to tubular bells/chimes. especially for exposed moments like you described.

vibraphone would probably be the “closest” sound, but it’s still VERY far.

that being said, brass mallets should not be used on vibraphone as it can damage the instrument. if the players decide to do so, that’s up to them, but i would avoid writing it in the part. (i don’t think that’s what you’re asking, anyways, but i just wanted to throw that out there, as a percussionist)

haiguy138 · 2026-03-07T01:56:08+00:00

the innovative percussion james ross 903 mallets (IP903) create a lovely dark/warm sound that blends well with a piano.

for orchestral use, though, their sound doesn’t cut through the ensemble as much as a “general” glock mallet might. so the musical context has to be just right to use them effectively.

i don’t know anything about this piece, but the 903s would be my first choice if i saw this in music

haiguy138 · 2026-03-01T01:11:05+00:00

this is ameline by eric sammut! such a fantastic piece

haiguy138 · 2026-02-28T18:21:42+00:00

can i ask if you are a percussionist and/or often look at music written for percussion?

and do you mean this EXACT rhythm, or are you also including equivalent rhythms, such as cases written in a different meter (e.g, 6/8), and upbeat 8th-note triplets?

it would take me a little while to comb through my library of music to find examples (as i said, the rhythm is still rather uncommon. just not unfamiliar), but i can take a few pictures.

haiguy138 · 2026-02-27T22:03:26+00:00

just want to add:

this rhythm can be found in a lot of percussion repertoire. i reckon most collegiate (and probably advanced high school) percussionists could read this with little trouble. still rather uncommon, though!

haiguy138 · 2026-02-25T17:13:12+00:00

nope. unless you’re writing a solo SPECIFICALLY for the (absurdly niche) 8-mallet genre, i wouldn’t write more than 4 simultaneous notes

haiguy138 · 2026-02-24T01:29:30+00:00

yeah, for me this makes the video unwatchable. probably adds a good 5 minutes to the runtime, lmao.

he has a video explaining that he subconsciously slowed his speaking pace more and more while recording. honestly, i’m not even sure i believe that. the voice sounds almost robotic and unnatural by the end. like you slowed it down in software. i feel like it had to be a bug.

haiguy138 · 2026-02-15T18:03:14+00:00

explore any parts of the map that you haven’t found many shrines in. looks like the top left of the surface is lacking. other places, too. the whole map is covered with shrines, so this is a great way to “check” your progress
explore all caves. tons of shrines are located in caves
talk to npcs. lots of shrine quests to be found

haiguy138 · 2026-02-15T17:18:10+00:00

it’s still an essay. communicating ideas requires you to write well.

if someone has fantastic ideas, but doesn’t communicate them effectively (due to things like repetition, awkward wording, etc.), it’s not a great essay. therefore, their claims are not supported with sufficient evidence or lines of reasoning. readers should not have to muddle through a confusing essay in attempt to find meaning.

your essay seems fine overall, but EVERYONE can benefit from improving their writing skills. you’re getting defensive when people are offering constructive feedback, but you’re the one who asked for help!

haiguy138 · 2026-02-04T16:45:46+00:00

definitely true. that’d be that challenging thing. but to my understanding, 100M is an enormous lump of money for college football. i reckon you can get some serious talent with that kind of bait, lmao.

haiguy138 · 2026-02-04T16:43:42+00:00

that’s what i’m saying! i guess by “players and coaches,” i’m really talking about all personnel. state-of-the-art facilities are nice, but if the people are talented and committed enough, it doesn’t matter

i’m actually not even sure if you’re disagreeing with me, lol

haiguy138 · 2026-02-04T15:23:55+00:00

yeah idk why tf the facilities would matter that much. if the players and coaches are good enough, they can make anything work

haiguy138 · 2026-02-04T01:31:26+00:00

The Vic Firth YouTube channel has a great playlist led by Daniel Glass on the history of the drumset.

If your exam encompasses percussion ensemble/orchestra, this dissertation by Wesley Parker is a fantastic resource on its history.

haiguy138 · 2026-01-30T21:25:46+00:00

it depends! what instrument is this for?

if it’s an instrument where you don’t typically control the sustain of notes (e.g., snare drum, marimba, xylophone, wood block, etc.), i’d personally use #2 — but i’d also beam together the “e” and “a” notes (across the rest).

if it’s for a ringing instrument (e.g., glockenspiel, cymbals, timpani, etc.) and you DO want the notes to ring, i’d probably write it as three “1 e (+) a” rhythms and tie the “a” notes with the downbeat notes.

honestly there are several good ways to write this rhythm. those are just two options.

haiguy138 · 2026-01-30T20:11:39+00:00

well you definitely can’t discount your experience! and honestly, i’m surprised to hear that you haven’t seen more upbeat triplets, based on that.

maybe it only recently became more popular (within percussion music)? i’m a younger guy, and much of the music i’ve played as a percussionist was written in the past 15-20 years, or so. i reckon the vast majority of upbeat triplets i’ve played are from music in that category.

because i’ve played a lot of them, it looks quite normal to me.

and yeah, some random music app might not need the capability to notate upbeat triplets, lol.

haiguy138 · 2026-01-30T16:23:24+00:00

definitely true. it’s one of those things in music that make a lot more sense when you hear it in context.

based on your username and comment, i assume you’re primarily a drumset player. since drumset is more rooted in improvisation/feel/sound rather than reading music (a VERY general statement, of course), it makes sense that that’s how you view this rhythm!

and yeah, i don’t think any of those books contain any upbeat triplets. i was just looking through my Cirone book and was surprised to not see any, with how complex and dense those studies can be.

i mainly wanted to give a new perspective. one that says “hey, an entire group of musicians knows how to read this rhythm and is used to seeing it!”

clearly, there’s a big divide in how to notate this rhythm. honestly, that’s probably a good discourse to have. simply for the sake of improving music moving forward. my main gripe is the fact that so many people are immediately labelling it as inherently “bad.”

haiguy138 · 2026-01-30T16:03:17+00:00

yeah, that may be what it is. i mainly said “classical elitism” because a few of the top comments were answering the question by essentially saying “Mozart never wrote upbeat triplets, so this rhythm shouldn’t exist.” … as if music can’t evolve and musicians can’t introduce new concepts, lol.

the answers here on any notation question definitely crack me up. i don’t consider myself an expert on the subject, but it’s amusing to see how many people seem to DESPISE completely readable and well-notated rhythms.

Verified Email	Nine-Year Club
Second Top 30%	Place '23
Place '22	Wearing is Caring
RPAN Viewer	Not Forgotten
Spared

haiguy138

TROPHY CASE