RAPIDCOMPOSER. CODE

None of this is an argument for or against a “Melody Paths app”. So we have to be simultaneously attracting new students with clear and compelling ideas about how they can understand music, but then we have to also be constantly pushing them away to go make music. The goal is for them to fall in love with their instruments. But the end goal isn’t for people to fall in love with our apps and courses. It’s a paradox because we know that our learning program needs to be engaging and enjoyable in order for people to use it. It’s to get our students connected with their instruments, making music and expressing themselves creatively. Our mission isn’t fundamentally about people interacting with our products. So we always have to keep coming back to our mission. So the student falls into the passive role of just watching videos or clicking on apps, and you’ve inadvertently killed the student’s own autonomy and personal initiative. But now the information is so clearly presented that the student doesn’t need to think about it. Sometimes you think you’re doing the student a favor by providing better tools or more clear information. And a lot of these other apps could bring arguably interesting features into our offering. None of this would be possible without information technology and the internet.īut while there are maybe a hundred or so (no exaggeration) apps and services that we use, there are millions that we don’t. So I feel incredibly fortunate to have these awesome tools that allow me to work at what I love, create audio visual materials to express my ideas, and then reach people all over the world with these ideas.

Our entire business model was unthinkable even just 30 years ago. There are a hundred apps and services that we depend on to create our books, jam tracks, video courses, etc. We actually share your enthusiasm for technology. Thanks for the thought provoking conversation, I really appreciate your intentions, and your genuine desire to help us. IMO, nothing beats singing the numbers with Mireia, but for every progression or song where that material has not yet been prepared, I can use RC as the video shows and get right to work! I even suggested the possibility over in the RC Forum of adding a capability to generate such to RC. They make a very clear visual of the changes across chords as anchored in the numbers 1 thru 7. I do like the IFR column and circles charts. In any case, thanks for the kind comments and encouragement. So, I apologize if I created any mis-impression from the start.

RAPIDCOMPOSER. CODE

Though I indeed have written code myself over the years, I consider myself only just good enough to recognize greatness when I’m in the presence of it! To be clear, I didn’t really “code” anything here, merely created a composition in the program Rapid Composer in a way that seemed to me to support practicing the Melody Path ideas.Ĭredit for Rapid Composer belongs to Attila Mezei, who is indeed an amazing coder! I look forward to sharing more conversations with you. THANK YOU for carrying our humble Melody Paths studies with you into the future! And thank you for making such a positive and generous contribution to our group. So here we are in 2021, and our intellectual musings can take the form of animated video, auto-generated melodies and real time sound production. In that sense, it’s kind of like the 21st century version of my own Melody Paths drawings, which I readily admit are unapologetically 20th century! The other thing that I think is wonderful about this kind of project is what YOU as the coder learn from the exercise. If you’re currently studying improvisation in a mechanical and formulaic way (which unfortunately is what a lot of people are doing), then a demo like this one can generate a bit of an existential crisis! What I like most about this whole initiative is that by demonstrating what a machine can do, it forces us to reexamine our own attitudes about why we play music, and what it means to improvise. As I’m sure you know, there is a huge community of mathematicians and coders who are passionate about using harmony rules to create apps that can improvise their own music. What a great project to cement your understanding of these chords. You have a real talent for demonstrating complex systems very concisely! I’ve attached a Melody Paths drawing of the chord columns for chords 1, 3-, 2- and 5D to help people visualize what’s going on melodically in your demo. Hey Steve, welcome to our forum! And thank you for sharing this video.

Rapidcomposer.