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Music Theory

Guitar Room

I've been playing guitar off and on for about 30 years, but in the past six months, I've taken up the instrument again with a passion, and during that time, I've collected a number of great resources for learning the guitar and extending one's knowledge of music theory.


Most of the programs listed below are either Mactinosh or cross-platform.

Educational Resources

Garage Turntable

The Oracle Speaks

As I mentioned on my homepage, I'm a big fan of analog sound and often spend Friday evenings in my garage listening to old albums from the 1960s and 1970s. Even with all the pops and scratches, I can hear a quality absent from the sanitized expression of digital sound.

Last year, while discussing the difference between analog and digital with a graduate student in our program, I heard a great explanation of the difference between the two. The student told me about a guy nicknamed "the Oracle" who hangs out in a bar up in Decorah, IA. They call him the Oracle because apparently he knows something about everything, and people come up to ask him questions all the time.

So one day, the student asks the Oracle, "What's the difference between analog and digital music?"

"Analog is like the ocean," the Oracle responds, "and digital is like a marriage."

"What?" asks the student, slightly puzzled.

"Yeah, analog is just one continuous wave after another," the Oracle says, "whereas digital is just a series of yes and no decisions."

And there you have it, folks -- no finer technical explanation exists about differences between the two.