For professional musicians, a principled understanding of music theory underpins their ability to read, write, and perform music. For those at the start of their journey however, the steep learning curve poses a significant barrier to entry.

Despite the vast amounts of information on the subject, music theory is a field steeped in tradition and designed with the initiated in mind. While there are no shortage of videos and blogs attempting to elucidate the key concepts, most end up contributing to a culture of fragmented learning that fails to address the crux of the issue.

To learn effectively we need to:

1. focus our attention
2. actively engage with the subject
3. make (and learn from) mistakes
4. practice regularly

Perhaps more important of all, we need to establish context. We need to see how all the individual pieces of a subject connect to form the bigger picture.

The often invisible nature of modern UI design can go a long way to address the limitations of passive and linear forms of media such as text and video. Here we can begin to imagine systems that tie key concepts to the bigger picture without overwhelming the user. We can start to design intuitive experiences that lead to deeper, more meaningful connections. Using The Chromatic Scale as reference, this project explores how we might design such as system without undermining the language of music.

Feel free to interact below.