Reader comments @ TheCipher.com Page 1   Page 2 Add your comment, via email   What a f'ing masterpiece! The content of the Cipher is off-the-charts brilliant. Really, really something.  Really something.   But as I spend time on this site, I can't get past the BEAUTY of the SITE. I'm not talking here about your theories, your writing, or your giant spirit.  I am talking about your presentation.   I've never heard a master play the Viola-de-Gambi (or whatever you call that bowed guitar) but I'm guessing it sounds like your web site LOOKS.  Strikingly beautiful, and as you say in your credo ... healing.    It's almost as if I have to call your WEB SITE symphonic.   ( Laughing out loud ...I know what I'm talking about !)   G-d bless you Roger, and quite simply ... thanks.   A quote (by someone else) regarding your site - which I want to second  “ . . loved it . . . As for the layout of text, use of whitespace, etc, it's the best I have seen in a while - and people should go see just to see how to lay out text for ease of readability . Great! David_NTL_UK”   Yours,  Quinn the Eskimo, David   Your site is excellent and I believe I will benefit from it. Your Cipher theory appeals to my need for mathematical order. I have taken a Junior College music theory course and I could only survive it by rote memorization. Your system is elegant. So, when will I see the book? DJR   What an elegant site.  I'm 41 and have been a classical singer for many years (Baroque stuff, mostly), yet am just beginning viola da gamba and lute. Alas, I have no music theory training (I'm an engineer by education) and so have been scanning the web to find info about lute tablature and just plain help for this fretted thing I'm trying to learn to play. This site answers *all* of my questions easily, *visually*, and intellectually.  And its nice to look at too. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Jeffrey Rich Your numbering system is EXACTLY what I envisioned in my head as I've been learning in my mere 1.5 years. I'm a number curncher and cannot relate to the I, IV, V (I know what it is and how to use it but real "fret" numbers help).  I want your book when it is published.  Please respond to this email when it comes out!!!!!   Dennis :-) Roger I've just discovered your website and I must congratulate you on the insight your system brings. As the usual average guitar and bass twiddler, I've come back to the instruments off and on over a twenty year period, only to hit that ceiling where I need more knowledge of theory to play the way I really want to, but the complexity of the fretboard gets me every time compared to the clarity of a keyboard. (Albeit the ability to move easily across keys with guitar and bass is great). Now I see a way to get to grips with this, not just learning things by rote with no true understanding of the relationship between notes. Congratulations on your hard work, and for making this a free access site. Many thanks Iain I have been a hobbyist composer with midi for some time now, yet I struggled with the seemingly contradictory teachings in a music theory textbook. I had tried using semitones myself, and still could not comprehend just where the 5 was in a perfect 5th... This site was the first to bring into my gasp that which had lingered just a breath away from true understanding. Thank you. DX Your website has been an immensly helpfull tool in my understanding of music theory. Thank you for such a wonderfull site, and for your time. D Hi Roger Thank you sooooo much for the site! My mind is much clearer when I pick my mandolin. I would like to be notified when your book is complete and ready for consumption. Thanks again for the wonderful, clear, simple information. Sean Dear Friend I am so excited that I found your web site! I am a diatonic accordion player who’s very interested in learn how to play the "C" system chromatic accordion. I''ve been looking for many years a book, method on learning the chromatic "C" system and I am very happy that I found your website. Best Regards, LEO Bravo Votre site est magnifique, intelligent et sobre. Votre site est accueillant, discret et sans equivoque. I hope I could read your book soon. Thanks Stephane, France Hello, the best net music page I've ever seen!!!!!!! I play keyboards and chromatic button accordion. Your drawings really help me a lot! Kind regards from Slovenija Igor Triplat, Slovenija Been checking out this site for the last hour or so: http://www.thecipher.com/5degree-calc-line.html  Simply awesome! Great web-sites like this (and the people who author them) give the internet a great name. Guitar fan   Dear Mr. Blumberg Your Cipher primer is a godsend. I'm 47, and I have returned to playing musical instruments (strings, piano, and accordion) now (finally), after getting unnecessarily confused by standard teaching methods, a long time ago. My tutors could not answer, nor logically explain to me, the 'how it works' and 'why it works' of anything relating to harmony, sound, and instrument playing. I just knew, that there had to be a better way. I am very analytical. Standard music theory and the terms that traditional teachers use, are not mathematical, as you correctly point out. But music is mathematical. I understand math. Thank you so very much for your discoveries, and making them freely available online. Sincerely Henry I am going to introduce your Credo to my preservice Music teachers [Nipissing University, Ontario Ca.] in the hopes of stimulating some interesting discussion. Beautiful site. Carole R   Yo Roger . . . And all these years, I thought it was just me ! My goodness, I'm just about resisting the urge to call or email all of my 'proper' musician friends, and to say in some form of words or other that they s**k! But they cant help it, it was how THEY were taught — like poor ol' Jerry, violinist at the conservatory, telling me its worked for 100's of years and that should be enough. NO, I can’t work like that. Sorry, for me to be able to use a system I've got to understand its logic, its axioms, and if they’re too artificial, I don’t want to use that system. I want to know what’s beneath, e.g. the real intervals etc. I really am very glad you came along. Your URL was listed in Music Tech Magazine, in an article that tries to straighten out chord naming. I've got an electronics background, and I can be a bit critical of, say New Age’ers, who have systems where they make up the rules as they go. And the reason I cant/wont let conventional music theory sink in is that I cant just 'accept' something so contrived. I cant 'work with' something like that. I want to see what’s behind it, and this has kind of prevented me learning 'proper' music stuff for years! I'll be back for more soon! Yours, Pete UK Unbelievably rich and detailed website. Has been invaluable as I explore the bass guitar without prior musical training. Randy   Without a doubt — pure genius. Tavit S. Kind words for TheCipher.com at About.com "ResultsAbout" Guitar Chords, Editor’s page: "Chord Progressions for Guitar - An elegant, informative and  theoretical breakdown of the purpose and design of chord progressions. Charts and symbols are provided, but the written explanation of chord concepts is the primary focus of this page." [Thank you About.com (and Jason).  Roger Blumberg]   Oi man, cheers! I've been looking for YEARS for some good understandable guitar theory, and I found everything I needed in your site! BRAVO, cootos to you mate, you’re a legend! toodles Scott_e_o  (Austrailia) You have provided an amazing piece of work!  A few hours work with this site has given me more insight into the mysteries of the fretboard than nearly two years earlier studies. You really qualify to the title: "The Lord of the Strings". Looking forward to the book. Regards Trogg  (Norway) I just found your website today. I am a musician and instructor in mexico.  I teach for free to poor children and adults. I have always used a modern mathematical approach to the guitar, both in playing and in teaching.  This information is right on the target!!!! Thank you Russell Amazing site! I've played musical instruments before (trumpet, percussion) but I'm new to stringed instruments. I tried to learn guitar in the past and found it horribly confusing. Having recently decided to give music another go, I picked up a baritone ukulele, did a Google search and found your site. You've remedied many of the issues I've had with learning the instrument and I feel confident I will progress much faster using your method! Thank you for helping me rediscover the joy of music! Doug Some kind words about The Cipher @ SongTrellis David Luebbert's web site 5-22-03 It's very thrilling to discover someone who can explain a very complicated topic in a very simple way. Roger Blumberg on his website The Cipher, which is dedicated to teaching folks a simple method to explore music using a guitar, has written a wonderful explanation of how to decode the names that are commonly used to describe musical intervals. This whole interval nomenclature has gotten very confusing over the centuries. Roger makes it very simple to understand and proposes an alternative that makes much more musical sense than the conventions which have been used historically. The mathematician Paul Erdos said that a mathematical proof belonged in "The Book" if in his opinion a problem was solved as elegantly as if God himself had done it and recorded it in his own book of proofs. This interval explanation belongs in "The Book" of musical explanations.   Whew! I am very impressed with your site. I have been trying to comprehend the arcana of music theory for years, then figure out how to translate that to guitar. I have Fretboard Logic by Edwards. He tries to do something similar, but can't define his terms with sufficient precision. Now I feel I can SEE what an dimishished or augmented chord looks like. Your distinction between octaves and unisons is brilliant, too.  Now I can SEE what an inversion is.  You have given me the map to explore the firmament. Gotta have your book. Go ahead, :) revolutionize the stringed music world. I am glad I found your site before my daughter's classes in guitar and music theory begin. I can really help her now too, and start her off right  without all the usual confusion. Thank you Marilyn I probably should genuflect . . . finally . . . after 40 years I can pick up where they let me drop . . . Anybody want to buy some slighly used Mel Bay books? Kidding aside, I feel like the lights are on and the door is wide open. Thank you so much. B. W. Cornwell Yours is truly the only source I’ve ever come across that doesn’t insist on sucking all the joy out of playing the guitar. All the other site’s Ive been to have either wanted to vindictively go through the riggamaroll of piano’s and half step whole step method, or buy a book or better yet pay for online lesson’s. Maybe they’re afraid if they show you the big picture you’ll see something they don’t. But you have seen the top of the hill, and thanks to you so have I so thank you. Cheers, J. Just wanted to thank you for a wonderful site. It is the only resource I know of that demystifies the fretted instrument so that one can actually understand it, rather than just memorize it as a series of chord patterns, or "places where you put your finger to make a pretty sound". I really appreciate your making this information available at no cost, and would welcome the opportunity to donate something in some way to support this site, if it were necessary or possible. Thanks again! Alex   I stumbled onto your site and in ten minutes was playing all of my favorite mandolin tunes in octaves. The entire cipher system is very comfortable. I looked at the charts and thought "DUH"!. Why haven't been we been teaching this way all along!! Thank you very much. Will the entire site ever be produced as a single PDF-download. I enjoyed the information so much I want a paper copy for my very own!! James Rouse Chief of Publications and Digital Technologies at the United States Army Element, School of Music.     YES !!!  I’m NOT insane! It WILL be possible for me to learn guitar in this lifetime without loosing my mind or isolating myself for years in my apartment trying to understand conventional music theory. Please tell me the instant it is ready. THANK YOU !! Gary   Hello, I've been spending some time on the cipher web site.  I've been playing the guitar for about six years just kinda stuck in the same spot not knowing how to move on.  As I'm reading the material you have posted from your upcoming book, lights are going on and I'm seeing things on the fretboard that I couldn't make sense of before.  This is great! Please let me know when you get the book finished. Regards Michael Cole I loved it . . . As for the layout of text, use of whitespace, etc, it's the best I have seen in a while - and people should go see just to see how to lay out text for ease of readability . Great! David_NTL_UK . . . I get a sense of where I can start to do the things I always wanted to do on the guitar. I like your approach because it is so pragmatic, action-oriented, but no blind alleys. . . . . . I know you will help many musicians attain goals, and I hope you make millions for your dedicated and patient work With regards Bob Drobka cool site! the triad thing is really sweet Caliban That Cipher system looks really fascinating. I just glanced through some of the stuff - I really like the way you're using "counting numbers" for the intervals. It may prove to be very enlightening. I'm sure I'll be digesting that site thoroughly in the next few weeks Thanks Mr. Blumberg Little Dreamer At one point, not too long ago, I decided that the five line staff system and ten line grand staff hadn't been invented for guitarists, and that what had worked so well for pianists was an actual menace for guitar -- we needed an interval based system. That led to exploring the fretboard pretty throughly for ways of conceptualizing it from the ground up. I went far enough along in this project to realize that I wasn't doing it the right way... the right way was to use the 12 tone chromatic system (I was using 1-7 with b's) and to call the tonic/root 0. So, just a glance at your system tells me you've gone about it the "right way" -- so kudos.... and you seem to have been very thorough. I'll be looking at your work very carefully in the next few days. From the brief look I've given I already expect to be impressed . . . . . . ., if you've formalized an efficient system that makes the stepping stones easier to follow... you'll have done the string playing world a service. I look forward to deciphering your site. Doug “I'm getting the hang of your cipher system. I think it complements nicely what I've learnt from standard guitar methodology. Anyway, the content it great, and I appreciate you making it available to everyone.” Adam George Hello Roger; I just happened upon your Cipher Site and was very impressed. Thanks for making this information available. I'm an amateur musician from Canada. My knowledge of what you call the "standard" approach is quite extensive. I am, by profession, a mathematician. I've recently begun to learn the ukulele which is my first fretted string instrument -- never having played guitar. I think that I'll incorporate your Cipher approach into my study of the ukulele. Again, thanks for making it available. Sincerely, Barry Savage Your numbering formula has been so helpful to me on both the mandolin and the guitar. Please notify me when the book is ready.   Thank you for making such a excellent work available to us on line!   Mary The mandoling section is terrific and i'm sure the guitar is the same (haven't had time to get to that yet). Thanks!! Jason Thanks for your effort in devising such a brilliant system and creating such a beautiful website. Bradley Thank you so much! I am a self taught guitarist that had simply given up on self taught theory. I have learned more here in ten minutes than in twenty years of trying to make since of theory. David And yes i want the book Roger: Thanks for the web site. I have read a bit of it as I learn the mandolin. I have had about a year of theory in college and some working experience with theory, but not much useful fretboard experience with it. Focusing on semitones makes more sense than focusing on traditional intervals, but one needs to know both.  No magic here, just common sense and a good presentation.  I wish your book was on the street now, because I would be your first customer. Thanks Steven Fun at The Cipher I am an amatuer musician with lots of years of formal instrumental training. I am also a degreed engineer (math is my friend). My music theory background is pretty light duty. I can readily read music , and recite the keys , count any rhythm, and know the basic italian words .. but that is it. I am further blessed in that my wife of 25 years was an instrumental performance major for her first 3 years of college (we won't discuss her "perfect pitch") . During the last decade or so I have been active in choral music, and was suprised to find that all of those years of interval studies have provided some benefit , as I can often "hear" intervals in my head. This is great unless I start to think too much , at which point they ghost quietly away. My wife offers me auditory mnemonics (here comes the bride), for normal intervals, but of course you must be able to identify the intervals correctly and quickly for this to be much benefit. To this point I have been mired in "is this a M3 or a P4". I had figured that a M3 was 4 halfsteps up, but basically failed to progress much beyond. SO , in the meantime.. I decided to pickup guitar again after many years, determined to understand more than the basic chord positions .. I stumbled onto your site. Its like music theory for the engineer.  I love the stripping away of the conventional in favor of the logical (string numbering and recognition of the half-tone as the building block). Thanks for your efforts on the web site. It's not like some of the "learn to play guitar like the pretty lady in the picture in just 3 days for $19" sites. Your stuff is wide open and accessible. Lee Yes Roger, you sure in hell notify when this here masterpiece is published. This is the coolest damned thing I have ever seen. OMG. I have got to read this web site! I could tell you this and tell you that but let my exuberance talk.  This is so  amazing. I am flabergasted. Hooray! I found The Cipher for Viola da Gamba, which, at first glance, looked like the WRONG place. But, for some reason, I struggled with some odd stuff about some old instruments (or so it seemed) and eventually made it up to the home page, when I too jumped around the room slapping my knee. At this point, I vacilate between knee-slapping, and "crying" because I don't have time (or organization) to immerse myself in this pot-of-gold. Poor, poor pitiful me. Thank you so much for this outstanding resource. I am so smitten by this that I am literally speechless. I've been playing (like a blind man) for 20 years. I actually studied clarinet as a boy, so I appreciate "music science" (my phrase).  I've always tried to site-read notes on the guitar. It all started about 4 months ago. I knew I knew every damned note on frets 1 to 5!!! I see guitarists PLAY. I see jazz guitarists move. I appreciate "guitar science" so I decided "the world must stop until I know the notes on the frets ABOVE 5!  So I put a capo on fret 5 and left it there for 2 months (much to the chagrin of my 14 year old musical instrument lover.) The idea was "you will learn to know the notes on the upper frets like you know the notes on the lower frets!" And then, I started looking for "ways to know".  I start to see patterns.  I started to think "I'm on to something here". There are repeating patterns. If I can only memorize those patterns I can LEARN THOSE UPPER-FRET notes and play like Wes Montgomery! I am a computer professional (software, technical support). I thought "OK. The internet is BIG. Why not just search Google to see if anything is ePublished about this area of study that I am HOOKED on. Then I see something about some weird instrument I never heard of "Viol de WHAT?"  Cipher? But I read a little and I see "this stuff is ENGROSSED in what I'm seeing the tip of the iceberg of". So I simply said "I need to learn ALL of this Blumberg stuff!" This guy cannot be real. "OK world...STOP.  Life cannot continue until I know everything in TheCipher.  I believe.  I do not have to be sold because I believe because I saw the light recently although I need help absorbing the light. I am psyched.  I actually think I can now learn to play the guitar - where "play the guitar" means "see the guitar landscape (fretboard) as easily as I can see the piano landscape (a pretty simple layout).  As I said before "I don't have many words for you" but you should (hopefully) see my exuberence just flying off these pages. I'm speechless. Fretboard Logic doesn't compare with your depth. The devotion is less.  The historcial framework is less. I saw bubbling reviews of FL on Amazon. So I no-obligation ordered it and looked at it today. I was impressed enough by CAGED enough to drop down my $16.00 bucks.  FL is a continuing education "night course".  The Cipher seems to be a Master's degree. If yo're ever in Philly, lunch is on me! OK Roger, very best regards to you.  I feel like I've got a wonderful feast awaiting me - your web site! David Thanks for your heculean effort...I am actually learning at my age. Bob I WISH THIS INFORMATION WAS AVAILABLE 35 YRS. AGO OR SO WHEN I FIRST PICKED UP THE GUITAR!! NOW THAT I AM TEACHING SOMEONE ELSE, (MY NIECE) WITH THIS INSITEFUL MATERIAL. THEY WILL NEVER REALIZE THE STRUGGLE I HAD. -THANK YOU VERY MUCH. S.W. Steve Uzbekistan Thank you very much. I am student of chromatic button accordion B system, and the material about this instrument is very important for me. Thank you again Sergio Argentina Roger;   Thanks for saving me the work of writing up a short note on string numbering. I have been trying for years to convince people that a guitar is tuned EADGBE and not vice versa, and was about to just write up a short dissertation on the subject when I ran across your site.   The person who invented the 654321 string numbering system should burn in hell since all it does is cause confusion to the novice. Even my mother whoi played violin professionally for 80 years insists that it is tuned EADG although she would never nor could even play it that way.   Keep up the good work.   Page Hello; I've been struggling to understand music theory for years but I am starting to see things more clearly from reading your website. I played in a brass band as a child and have been tinkering with tenor banjo for years but only now am I starting to understand what the banjo fingerboard has to offer. At my time of life (56) I was thinking it was too late to understand music properly, but I am changing my opinion after seeing your website. I'd be interested in having a copy of your book for reference and I will be telling everyone I know of your wonderful method. Regards, John Thank you for taking the time to put this material together and also for your generousity in making this information available. Please include my name to your list and notify me when your book is available. Steve Please notify me when you complete your book. I have been amazed looking at your website. I can honestly say that you have the most comprehensive working website to date.   Thank you,   C Shipe Great site. Thanks!! I need all the help I can get teaching myself and I think I just found a heap of it. Dan Communication Team Leader Greenpeace Australia Pacific What a great website you have. I have been taking guitar now for about 4 months and have struggled with some of the terminaology and concepts, especially regarding intervals, how you detemine them, why is a perfect fifth "perfect," and the like. Your piece on intervals really helped me in this regard, and I look forward to going through all the modules.  Doug Good job about the string order...   I was feeling alone in some way about that unnatural aspect of naming the strings.   Anyway, Thank for your site and keep your good work Luc Quebec Canada Hi Roger,    Just found your site today. After playing for quite a while and getting bored with not really knowing what I'm doing I have been looking for a logical way to finding my way round the fretboard & by jove I think I have found it!   Thanks for your time, now I shall carry on reading!   Blair Dear Mr. Blumberg:   Your cipher theory is astoundingly simple and direct.  I play bass and it's absolutely the best and simplest explanation I've ever seen. I look forward to your book being published.   Best regards, Larry Your website is flat-out amazing. It is truly one of those cases where presenting all the info you do makes me eager to have it all in one place, printed. Thanks for all the work you have to present this information to the public. I am excited to put your concepts to work for me. Bret Hi My name's jordan, Ive been playing guitar alot over the last year, this Cipher thing is great, it has helped me tons, let me know when your book comes out. thanks man   Jordan Hi, I am really taken with your method. After reading just a few articles, I was better able to visualize the fret board of a guitar, and put together scales, cords etc, better than ever before. I have struggled with music theory, and have spent quite a bit of money on texts. I think that with your method, I will finally be able to integrate theory, with the fret board. I'm sure that all the theory books will be more useful to me, after I've internalized your system. Thanks for your time, and for making so much of your system available for free. I'd be very interested in purchasing your book when it comes out. All the best, Bruce Page 1   Page 2 Add your comment, via email               Up to Top of page