Obsidian Vault: Usage Context
This Vault
Domain: Music theory and audio engineering — covering classical form analysis, composition techniques, orchestration, mixing, mastering, and signal processing.
Purpose: A personal knowledge base built on the Zettelkasten / evergreen-notes approach, publicly shared via Obsidian Publish.
Active since: 2022, with notes added consistently through 2026.
Folder Structure
Brainbert/
├── MOCs/ — Maps of Content (topic indexes)
│ ├── Index.md — vault homepage
│ └── Music.md — master index of 100+ music theory topics
├── Notes/ — ~256 atomic concept notes
├── Sources/ — bibliographic reference notes (author-year.md)
├── _Meta/
│ ├── Files/ — attachments (images, diagrams)
│ ├── Templates/ — note templates
│ ├── Embed/ — reusable embedded callout snippets
│ ├── _Site/ — Obsidian Publish site files (Homepage, About)
│ └── Tags Legend.md — emoji tag reference
└── .obsidian/ — app configuration (do not edit manually)
Note Format
Naming convention: YYYYMMDDHHmmss Title of Note.md
Example: 20220403102200 what makes a good melody.md
Frontmatter: Rarely used. Most notes have no YAML. Metadata is conveyed through inline WikiLinks, tags, and placement in the folder structure.
Typical note structure:
- Short, atomic concept (2–10 paragraphs)
- Cross-links to related notes via
[[WikiLinks]] - Inline citations linking to
Sources/notes (e.g.,[[belkin-2018]]) - Status emoji tags at end of sections or notes
- Occasional embedded images (
![[image.png]]) or LaTeX math ($f = 1/T$)
Linking Conventions
- WikiLinks are the primary connection mechanism:
[[Note Title]]or[[Notes/timestamp title|Display Text]] - MOCs act as hub notes, linking out to dozens of atomic notes organized by topic
- Source notes in
Sources/are cited inline throughout Notes - Backlinks are used to navigate “what links here”
Status / Tag System
Emoji tags are used inline (not in YAML) to mark notes needing work:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
#✏️ | Needs completion |
#🔖 | Needs references |
#🔗 | Needs outgoing links added |
#❓ | Unanswered question |
#🎼 | Needs musical examples |
#🖼️ | Needs images |
#🏠 | MOC (index note) |
These appear inline — e.g., #✏️ - explain this further — and are collected by Obsidian’s tag system.
Sources & Citations
Reference notes live in Sources/ with filenames like caplin-1998.md, belkin-2018.md. Each source note contains minimal bibliographic info (author, title, publisher, year).
Within notes, citations use WikiLinks: [[caplin-1998]], sometimes with superscript footnotes via the <sup>[]</sup> template snippet.
Key sources include: Caplin (Classical Form), Kostka (Tonal Harmony), Belkin (Musical Form and Analysis), Schoenberg, Katz, Watkinson, and others.
Templates
Three templates in _Meta/Templates/:
- MLA citation.md — blank MLA citation scaffold
- Reference superscript.md —
<sup>[]</sup>for inline footnote refs - Unique Note template.md — bare note with
#✏️status tag
Plugins & Configuration
Community plugins: Only obsidian-linter is installed, configured solely to move inline tags into YAML frontmatter. All other linting rules are disabled; linting on save is off.
Core plugins enabled: File explorer, search, graph view, backlinks, canvas, tags, properties, page preview, daily notes (configured but unused), templates, command palette, bookmarks, word count, outline, file recovery, sync, bases.
Attachments: Stored in _Meta/Files/. Auto-link updating is on.
Obsidian Publish
The vault has a public-facing site via Obsidian Publish. The _Meta/_Site/ folder contains the public homepage and about page. The published site describes the vault as a Zettelkasten knowledge base for music theory.
Summary of Usage Patterns
- Atomic notes — one concept per note, short and linkable
- MOC-driven navigation — topic indexes rather than deep folder hierarchies
- WikiLink-first — connections made via links, not tags or folders
- Academic sourcing — every claim traced to a source note
- Progressive elaboration — notes are explicitly marked incomplete with emoji tags; the vault is a living document, not a polished wiki
- Public sharing — the vault is published and intended to be readable by others