Miscellaneous Chat GPT for music theory/practice resources

[Mix O Lydian]

For the past few weeks, I have been focussing certain aspects of music theory to help me with improvising. I am finding ChatGPT very useful in terms of understanding things I find complex by asking specific questions and breaking stuff down until I understand it. It also offers practice plans and suggestions and I have got it to do lists for me, in the way that I need them, which it puts in PDF form ready to print (saves a lot of time not having to write it all myself)For me it has been really useful, particularly as the chat does not disappear so I can refer back to it and see how my understanding has developed over time. Does anyone else use AI resources to help with their learning?

 

[progger]

I would just strongly encourage you to be healthily skeptical about information the LLMs present to you and cross-reference that information with established literature. In relatively niche fields, like music, I've seen an enormous amount of inaccuracy in what LLMs have presented.

 

[mizmar]

Can you give some examples?

 

[Pete Thomas]

In relatively niche fields, like music, I've seen an enormous amount of inaccuracy in what LLMs have presented.

This is what we have discovered here, and one of the reasons we don't integrate AI into the forum

 

[Pete Thomas]

I am finding ChatGPT very useful in terms of understanding things I find complex by asking specific questions and breaking stuff down until I understand it.

Can you give some examples?

I think it would be good to have examples of both, ie

• examples of Chat GPT being useful (or more useful than a teacher or the human derived resources we have here) and
• LLM inaccuracy

I think we have examples of the latter on our own (now retired) saxbot subforum

 

[Mix O Lydian]

I would just strongly encourage you to be healthily skeptical about information the LLMs present to you and cross-reference that information with established literature. In relatively niche fields, like music, I've seen an enormous amount of inaccuracy in what LLMs have presented.

what is an LLM

 

[mizmar]

what is an LLM

Large Language Model.
It's a core, underlying, technology for ChatGPT and similar. It's Large because it has a couple of trillion parameters (Model) tuned with almost the entire use of Language in the web. It can say, given a sequence of symbols, what the next symbols are likely to be.

 

[Mix O Lydian]

I think it would be good to have examples of both, ie

• examples of Chat GPT being useful (or more useful than a teacher or the human derived resources we have here) and
• LLM inaccuracy

I think we have examples of the latter on our own (now retired) saxbot subforum

@Pete Thomas

I use it like a form of ongoing interrogative learning. So after I have read/watched/practiced something, I ask Chat GPt various questions about things I want to elaborate on. The last long "conversation" with ChatGPT was about modulation. But there have been so many.

I do not have a music teacher, having had a couple of negative experiences, that have been documented on here. So I am trying to find other ways of learning.

 

[Mix O Lydian]

Large Language Model.
It's a core, underlying, technology for ChatGPT and similar. It's Large because it has a couple of trillion parameters (Model) tuned with almost the entire use of Language in the web. It can say, given a sequence of symbols, what the next symbols are likely to be.

Ohhhhhh, I see, thanks.

 

[Mix O Lydian]

Maybe someone who already know the answers could "test" ChatGPT to see whether it will give the right answer? Nothing it has told me so far has been wrong, when I have gone on to research the topic further. And I have been using it for weeks.

 

[lydian]

Maybe someone who already know the answers could "test" ChatGPT to see whether it will give the right answer? Nothing it has told me so far has been wrong, when I have gone on to research the topic further. And I have been using it for weeks.

I saw a Reddit post just the other day where someone authoritatively answered "what is a sharp seventh" from a blatantly wrong ChapGPT response:

"In music, a "sharp 7" can refer to either a dominant seventh chord (e.g., C#7), or the raised 7th degree of a scale (e.g., in a harmonic minor scale). A sharp 7 in a chord symbol (like C#7) indicates a dominant 7th chord built on that note, while a sharp 7 in scale context refers to raising the 7th degree of the scale by a half step."

 

[Pete Thomas]

I saw a Reddit post just the other day where someone authoritatively answered "what is a sharp seventh" from a blatantly wrong ChapGPT response:

"In music, a "sharp 7" can refer to either a dominant seventh chord (e.g., C#7), or the raised 7th degree of a scale (e.g., in a harmonic minor scale). A sharp 7 in a chord symbol (like C#7) indicates a dominant 7th chord built on that note, while a sharp 7 in scale context refers to raising the 7th degree of the scale by a half step."

What was missing in that answer is a 7th that is played sharp, although we would usually refer to the note name , as in that C# is a sharp C#

The way round it is to play it staccato, so it’s a short sharp C sharp.

Play it on the coast and it’s a short sharp C sharp on the sea shore.

 

[Mix O Lydian]

I saw a Reddit post just the other day where someone authoritatively answered "what is a sharp seventh" from a blatantly wrong ChapGPT response:

"In music, a "sharp 7" can refer to either a dominant seventh chord (e.g., C#7), or the raised 7th degree of a scale (e.g., in a harmonic minor scale). A sharp 7 in a chord symbol (like C#7) indicates a dominant 7th chord built on that note, while a sharp 7 in scale context refers to raising the 7th degree of the scale by a half step."

OK.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Nothing it has told me so far has been wrong, when I have gone on to research the topic further.

Admittedly it was a while back but our experience was not so positive as you can see:

Ask the Sax Bot (now retired)

Answered by our friendly bot.

cafesaxophone.com

 

[skeller047]

I use it like a form of ongoing interrogative learning. So after I have read/watched/practiced something, I ask Chat GPt various questions about things I want to elaborate on. The last long "conversation" with ChatGPT was about modulation. But there have been so many.

I do not have a music teacher, having had a couple of negative experiences, that have been documented on here. So I am trying to find other ways of learning.

My experiences with Chat GPT and Google Gemini is that answers to difficult questions can be misleading or just plain wrong, and are often based on the latest internet posts. So, when asking questions about woodwind playing or jazz theory or code generation I would not trust the responses. (I have asked all these kinds of questions at various times, and been disappointed. I no longer ask…)

If you cannot find a teacher that can help you, especially about something like music theory, I recommend the old fashioned approach. Buy a few books, or download them to your computer/tablet. Be prepared to play examples on a keyboard, it doesn’t matter if it’s slow. Be prepared to study a lot. “Music Theory” is a deep subject. And maybe cast your net a little wider for teachers 🙂

And please, with specific questions, feel free to reach out here. If you don’t get a good response, please feel free to reach out privately to me or someone else you trust on this forum. (I don’t have a college degree but do have a lot of theory knowledge, and a lot of experience applying it.).

There are a LOT of very good musicians here and most of us are happy to help. For music questions we are way better than AI.

 

[lydian]

There are a LOT of very good musicians here and most of us are happy to help. For music questions we are way better than AI.

Yep, RI beats AI.

 

[Mix O Lydian]

My experiences with Chat GPT and Google Gemini is that answers to difficult questions can be misleading or just plain wrong, and are often based on the latest internet posts. So, when asking questions about woodwind playing or jazz theory or code generation I would not trust the responses. (I have asked all these kinds of questions at various times, and been disappointed. I no longer ask…)

Maybe your questions might be more complex than the questions I ask 😉

If you cannot find a teacher that can help you, especially about something like music theory, I recommend the old fashioned approach. Buy a few books, or download them to your computer/tablet. Be prepared to play examples on a keyboard, it doesn’t matter if it’s slow. Be prepared to study a lot. “Music Theory” is a deep subject. And maybe cast your net a little wider for teachers 🙂

I am not willing to go back to a teacher at this stage.

But I have plenty of resources, both online and physical and I have also started attending group saxophone workshops.

And please, with specific questions, feel free to reach out here. If you don’t get a good response, please feel free to reach out privately to me or someone else you trust on this forum. (I don’t have a college degree but do have a lot of theory knowledge, and a lot of experience applying it.).

There are a LOT of very good musicians here and most of us are happy to help. For music questions we are way better than AI.

Thank you, that is very kind of you.

Yep, RI beats AI.

I like to think of it more as a dressing than the dish itself.....😎