a long time ago (1999-2000 era, so 25 years ago or so), i bought a printed book called “The Compleat Book of Scales”, which is an “exhaustive list of every possible scale and mode based on the Western European equal-tempered chromatic scale”.

it has been an invaluable resource, which i have used many, many times, since i bought it. the web site i bought it from, glassarmonica.com, has, apparently, been offline since may of 2021, and the book is, now, nowhere to be found.

i feel the same way about my notes from the tech school, which i originally collected between 1982 and 1984. i have not only used them multiple times, to this day, i know EXACTLY where to find information about screw-thread sizes, mouthpiece specifics, and ideas for how to treat ailing instruments of all kinds, which are easily transferrable skills in case i’m fixing our plumbing, or that sort of thing.

the internet is great, and everything, but there’s nothing that can beat a printed book that has been useful for its entire life. 😉