Guides
Guides for the curious.
Plain-English guides to music theory, beatmaking and songwriting, pocket gear and cyberdecks, the hardware inside them, and rooms that glow. Most end with something you can play right in your browser.
A microcontroller and a Linux computer look alike but do very different jobs. Here is which to pick for eight common maker projects, and when a Raspberry Pi...
The full 40-pin pinout, what every pin type does, I2C vs SPI vs UART, compatible modules, and the three rules that keep you from frying your Pi.
Everything that goes into a cyberdeck build: picking the brain (ESP32, Zero 2 W, Pi 5 or CM5) for the job, screens and keyboards, power and battery life,...
Text with no cell signal using $20 LoRa radios. How Meshtastic works, how far it reaches, privacy, licensing, and the best beginner devices.
Darkness, two neon colors and tech you can see. How to light, color and style a cyberpunk room or desk, from under $50 to a full build.
A repeatable way to write a song: start from one idea, loop four chords, find the melody, write the chorus first, and finish before you perfect.
Your first beat, step by step: tempo, kick and snare, hi-hats, bass, chords, a hook, arrangement and quick mixing tips. Free tools, no experience needed.
Six progressions behind thousands of songs, from I-V-vi-IV to the 12-bar blues, with charts in every common key.
Five notes, almost no wrong ones. The major and minor pentatonic on piano and guitar, charts for common keys, and the blues scale.
One step pattern builds every major scale. Here it is, with all twelve keys, scale degrees, do re mi, and piano fingering.
Useful, a bit unusual, and very likely not already on their shelf: gifts for musicians from under $30 to about $330.
What an Omnichord is, what the OM-108 reissue costs, where to play one online for free, and the pocket alternatives worth a look.
One wheel tells you every key signature, which chords belong together, and which changes will pull. Here is how to read it in five minutes.
Four ways to find the key of any song, from a ten second lookup to doing it by ear, plus the three mistakes that trip everyone up.
C major and A minor use exactly the same notes. Here is why, how to find the relative minor of any key, and a chart for all twelve.
The best Cardputer ADV firmware for every job, from Launcher first to Bruce, Meshtastic, GLIDE, Game Station and UIFlow2, with quick picks and install steps.
The $30 ESP32 Cardputer ADV and the new Linux-based CardputerZero share a name but not a brain. Here is how to pick.