It takes a whole chapter to explain rhythm because I have witnessed people spend literally over an hour stuck on "counting out a measure" with varying note leng

It takes a whole chapter to explain rhythm because I have witnessed people spend literally over an hour stuck on "counting out a measure" with varying note lengths. This series is starting where a from-scratch musical education must start. An education for theory training does end up focused on note interval structures, and there's an endless amount to talk about there, but then, you don't need a great deal of traditional theory for simple songwriting - major and minor triads will suffice. This tutorial gets those but in my skimming of it seemed to stop short of trying to explain circle of fifths usage, which is probably the one most essential thing to make composition in the large go from "I have to guess and check" to "I have a guideline to work from that lets me calculate ahead."