The last time I attempted to learn music theory by picking up Walter Piston's book, a well-written but dense classic, I lasted 8 chapters (out of 28) before giving up. Yes, it is boring and take more determination than I can muster. Some day when I am ready, I thought, I probably need to sign up a college class like @ShiroKuro did to force me slug it through.
Then, last week, a random YT video lead me down the path to discover and explore "The Rule of the Octave". As you will see how far I went down the rabbit hole, you can get the sense the is particular piece of music theory become so fascinating to me. Here is my weird journey.
It all started with Ben Laude's video breakdown of how Mozart humiliates Salieri. In the segment about Mozart's improvisation, Ben explained Mozart had acquired a comprehensive vocabulary of music phrase and schema at a very young age which serves as the foundation for his genius in improvisation and composition to develop upon.
A few days later, as I was perusing the John Mortensen Music channel, I was enticed to click on a title "How to Fake Anything on Stage: Part I". His demonstration of "The Rule of the Octave" caught my attention. I couldn't understand the rule, but the effect really left me impressed.
So I went to Google to find out what "The Rule of the Octave" is. Wikipedia has a terse page for it, but raise more questions than answers.
First, what does those numbers 43, 6, 65, #643 mean? Classical Squeak has a great short on this topic on Youtube.
BTW The long version by Classical Squeak seem even more informative so I bookmarked it for later study.
Second question, what are the rules and the logic behind it. After viewing a number of YT videos, I found a good one. Music Matters has come through again with clear, simple and practical explanations.
I also find this PDF document with very logical explanation and illustration of the principles.
By this time, I am agitated to try it out. But how should I practice it on the keyboard? Mark Gotham wrote a chapter in the online "Open Music Theory" book with scores that breaks the rule down to steps.
https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/rule-of-the-octave/
And Olga Sanchez-Kisielewska published an article about how she taught it to first year undergraduates.
https://digitalcollections.lipscomb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/jmtp/article/1243/&path_info=The_20Rule_20of_20the_20Octave_20in_20First_Year_20Undergraduate_20Theory_20Teaching_20in_20the_20Twenty_First_20Century_20with_18th_Century_20Strategies.pdf
Whew! I still can't say I understand the Rule of the Octaves, let alone on how to learn and use it. But I am seriously tempted to added it to my daily routine. If you followed my babbling this far, you must be a music theory nerd! Please chime in!