Concerning the Absolute Beginner Tutorial for Lilypond Beginners

[Daniel Tonda Castillo]

Greetings to everyone:

I've been following the thread and reading the tutorial, so far, and I'm 
ready to voice my very personal and subjective opinion.

I think that the idea behind the absolute beginners' tutorial is 
precisely what it's title implies. It's for the absolute beginner, not 
for the intermediate user, or for the full fledged master of the 
universe. That is what the Lilypond documentation is for.

I think that the tutorial should, on each chapter, go just a little bit 
deeper than the previous chapter. The tutorial should be oriented at 
getting results, fast, so that the the interested reader will be 
interested in deepening his understanding, not alienating the novice, 
which may happen if it gets keeping bigger and bigger or more exacting 
in the precise use of the terms.

Think if you will, of the development cycle. A spiral where with each 
turn of it, the user gets more and more information, until she's/he's 
ready to digest a fuller documentation.

Think: learn lilypond in 10 hours, lessons, excercises, keep it 
practical, to the utmost, results oriented.

Of course, in time and with enough understanding, polish and care, the 
absolute beginner's tutorial may end up becoming something like: "The 
ultimate guide for the beginner lilypond novice", or similar.

As a teacher I've experienced that giving too little information to the 
student, will cause frustration, giving too much will also cause 
frustration. It may not aid in the student learning. Part of the process 
of learning has to be performed by the student, investigating, reading, 
etc. More times than not a bump in the head or tripping over something 
is a better way of learning, and retaining information than holding the 
student's hand all the time. Give the student enough so that he/she will 
desire to strive further and achieve things by his/her self.

There is a thing as trainers, or instructors, and respectfully a 
developer sometimes may not be interested or lacks resources like time 
or whatever to get a message accross in a clear and transparent form to 
the user.


Daniel Tonda C.

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