New Music Literacy Site Launched!
I'm very pleased to announce the launch of my new Music Literacy website! If you've ever wanted to learn how to read music, this is a great place to start. This is a free online course that covers note reading, pitch, rhythm, and application to your instrument of choice.
Years ago I would meet various people from church or in the SCA who could sing or play an instrument, but I found that so many of them could not read music. This made it very difficult to collaborate or share works. I decided then that I wanted to write an online Music Literacy course.
In 2000, shortly after coming to work for Results Direct (a web development firm), my boss had just released an online Learning Management System (LMS). He invited the staff to try it out, and after looking at the sample course he published, I immediately asked if I could give the authoring tools a try. I began writing the Music Literacy course, and put the LMS through its paces. However, there were quite a few technical challenges back then, as browsers did not have any native support for audio. I wound up writing a number of Java applets, which were a bit cumbersome. Also, the quality of the audio supported by Java at that time was poor.
I'd finished writing the course. But, because it was on the LMS, I couldn't readily share it with others. The site required a login account, for one thing. Although I wanted to take the content and publish it on its own site, I never quite got around to it.
Fast-forward 10 years: HTML 5 is now available, with native browser support for audio, which means that I was able to completely remove all the Java applets. I've updated all the audio, and some of the course content as well. I'm pleased to be able to make this available to any and all who wish to learn.
Just the Beginning
The Music Literacy course is just a start! I plan to write up a Basic Music Theory course as well, which will cover intervals, scales, key signatures, and chords. After that, I'd like to write an Ear Training course. All of these will be made available at the Music Literacy site. Come visit, and let me know what you think!
