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Yeah, there are perhaps six music theory classes in my catalog. The rest is instrument training, bands, appreciation (what the hell) and history, not forgetting the ubiquitous applied music classes. Here's the one that really gets me:
Music 191-
Music Laboratory For Listening - 0.50 UNITS Rpt 3
Prerequisite: None. Open entry/Open exit. Credit/No Credit.
Students use Listening Library materials and equipment to do listening assignments from Music Appreciation, History, and Musical Theater Repetoire classes or listen to music of their own choosing.
Why would you pay for that?
But if you learn interesting things in your classes, please share them like you said (or, Im too cheap to take the damn classes myself, so tell me stuff. ) Also sharing and breaking down some of that knowledge could really be an excellent addition to these boards. Truth be told, I see the way a lot of you are classifying these scales and while it's theoretically correct, I think it's selling the scales a bit short. If you want you can check out my guide to modes I posted in this forum a while back, but when you're playing something in Phrygian Dominant, you're not thinking of it's relation to Harmonic Minor, are you? It's the fifth mode, but aside from that E Phrygian Dominant has no relation to A Harmonic minor from a tonality standpoint.
I'm trying not to blatantly advertise that post I madebut in that thread I discuss how a lot of the time modes are explained relatively: C ionian is to D dorian is to E phrygian, etc. The scales that share the same notes, and are modes of each other, are categorized together. But I find a more practical approach is to view the parallel modes. C ionian is to C dorian is to C phrygian. They don't have the same notes, but they have similar tonalities, at least in the sense that they're in "C" keys.
Truth be told, a lot of theory doesn't conform to this. The modes of C aren't all in the key of C, theoretically. But what I'm saying is, over a C major chord you can't play D dorian, or E phrygian. Because they have the same notes as C major, so over the backing chord they are C major. But you can play C lydian. Or C mixolydian. Or C phrygian dominant. And those have different tonalities, and different notes, but are not altogether dissonant.
It's a more modern way of looking at it, rather than classical harmony.
EDIT: Also, because I wanna join in on the conversation and be one of the "cool kids"...
I'm taking my first formal theory class next year (senior year of high school). It's advanced placement, so if I pass a test at the end of the year I'm eligible for college credits in music. I've taken guitar classes with my guitar teacher at the high school, but in class we never learn any theory. My teacher's always cool to ask about stuff, though, to the point where last year, I would routinely duck into his class throughout the day and ask questions. Like "Well, if I wanted to play dorian... what's a Dorian progression look like?" He helped me out a lot, but I had to get started on my own, I guess.
What I really wanna do is learn to sight-read/write music. Im hoping theory class will help me with that, because even though I already know the concepts it's practice that I need.
It's hard to get a good one of these. As you see, the key names are listed all around the circle, ordered in the number of accidentals they have. If you go clockwise, every tonic is a fifth away from the last one, hence the name. On the inside of the circle are the relative minor keys of those same major scales. Thus, the relative minor of C major is A minor, and F major is D minor, and so on.
Basically, this circle tells you how many sharps or flats are in a key, what the tonic of that key is, and if you know the order, which notes are sharp and which are flat. In a sharp key, this is the order that the notes are sharpened: FCGDAEB
In a flat key, it goes backwards: BEADGCF
Thus, in the key of G, there will be one sharp, which will fall on the first note in the sharpening sequence, F. The scale of G major is G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G. Its relative minor is E minor, E-F#-G-A-B-C-D-E. In the key of A, we add
two more sharps on, because it is two more keys away: A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A.
For flat keys, it works just the same, but the direction you're going in is opposite. F has one flat: F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F. Ab has four: Ab-Bb-C-Db-Eb-F-G-Ab
It's easy to find the harmonic minor of any given key, just check the natural minor, say, A minor (whose relative major is C major, which has no sharps or flats, making this easier), and raise the seventh scale degree a half step. So, if you have A minor, A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A, and you want A harmonic minor, take that G and sharpen it: A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A.
Now, I hardly see this on these circles, but I like doing it, because it makes my life easier. You can copy this diagram, and replace those annoying key signatures and staff lines with numbers along the rim of the circle, like this one:
(The reason I didn't use this one is because it doesn't have relative minor keys on it.)
Copy those relative minors and put them next to those sharp/flat signs, so you know which key they correspond to. It should also be noted that the second circle has the enharmonic keys on it: Cb/B, Gb/F#, and Db/C#. They're the same, but they have different "spellings".
Compare C#: C#-D#-E#-F#-G#-A#-B#-C#
to Db: Db-Eb-F-Gb-Ab-Bb-C-Db
If you play them on piano, you'll see that they are the same exact key.
Now, the useful part: figure out the fifth of each minor key, and put that somewhere in the circle where you can tell its relation. You can do this by taking the triad construction of the minor key's tonic chord, and looking at what the fifth is. For Ami, ACE, for example, the fifth will be E. So, if you're playing A harmonic minor, and you want to be metal, you look at your circle of fifths, see that your phrygian dominant is going to be E, and you whip out your phrygian dominant shape, and slide it up to E.
Now that I've covered that, here is the reason why it's called phrygian dominant: in the major scale, the third mode is called the phrygian mode. In the scale of C major, the phrygian mode is E phrygian. When you go to the relative minor, this then becomes the fifth mode of the minor scale. Now, going back to what I was saying pages ago about that V-i resolution being stronger than a v-i resolution, that has a play in how this mode is named in the harmonic minor. Because V resolves better to I (or i) than any other chord in a diatonic scale, it is called the dominant chord. It dominates, I guess. That added resolution that harmonic minor gives to its fifth chord makes it dominant. (This last part may be bullshit, the name might not be different for a v chord, somebody call me on that if so.)
, but it might be best to start a new thread. 
. I know it's a pain for me to try to score music and I write so many harmony parts or rythmn/lead parts it'd be really cool to see all that as you hear it. It'd also help others to hear the "rythmn" of the riffs and melodies. ). )
You want to see music as your composition plays before you? Get Guitar Pro. I use it; it allows you to enter either tablature and standard notation (and it fills in the other), also, there is midi (or RSE--realistic sound engine) playback which can give you a fair approximation of how it will sound.
