Recently I visited a diary that had nothing to do with any of my interests or skills (probably a familiar experience for most of us). In this case, it was the diary title that caught my eye; this diary's title is an hommage.
That diary was about video aspect ratios, and it prompted a bemused comment from me, which was met with puzzlement from the diarist. This diary is about frequency ratios and their importance in music theory; perhaps it will prompt a few bemused comments from video nerds.
When I started learning music seriously I was a teenager. I'll turn 54 in a couple of weeks, and I'm still figuring out all this stuff, despite (or perhaps because of) being a professional musician and music teacher for three decades. Having a 7-year-old daughter is an enormous help.
In high school I took my first music theory class. The teacher's name was Mr. March, which should have been a clue. The first day, he said to the class, "I'm going to test your musical ears." He told us to take out a piece of paper. Then he said, "I'm going to play two intervals on the piano. You write down which is bigger, the first or the second."
Then he turned his back to us and pressed some keys on the piano.
I did not have a freakin' clue what was going on.