That’s an unusual, but interesting, question. You are quite right to wonder, especially considering the amount of crap there is on the Internet.
The short answer is, “you don’t”. But here’s a few things to think about.
Never take anybody’s word for anything without trying to get some confirmation for yourself. The Internet makes this fairly easy, just cross reference my information with other websites and if we all say the same thing then you can assume it’s probably correct.
This doesn’t however automatically make it correct, it just makes it probable. For instance, I find most song chord sites are wrong almost every time I have looked up song chords. Many of them use the same (purchased) database and copy from each other. In situations like this, cross referencing won’t help you make that decision.
Things like chord and scale diagrams are fairly safe to cross reference. Any time I have found inconsistences, it can usually be put down to a human error, much like a typo. I’ve had quite a few of them myself and luckily I eventually get an email from a confused reader that points it out and I correct it immediately. I’ve not had any of these for a very long time so I will assume any errors I have had on here have all been picked up by now. That’s not to say it won’t happen again when I upload new content. The good thing is I have thousands of great visitors and somebody usually spots it quite quickly, should it happen.
The lessons and articles are all my own writing and I’m fairly passionate about it. When I write a topic, even if it’s something I’m quite confident about, I still find myself double checking and cross referencing the many books I have just to be sure if I have the slightest doubt. Doesn’t mean I am always 100% right but I do put a lot of effort into it, not just post things fast to get my word count up.
Some subjects are controversial and largely misunderstood. A perfect example would be modes. Subjects like this are difficult to cross reference because the majority of websites are actually wrong on this subject. All I can tell you about things like this is I looked into modes for many years before finally understanding them. If I don’t truly understand something then I’ll either not write about it or I will say so within the article / lesson. If ever I am wrong about something then I have no problem being called out and corrected. I don’t have a big ego and I’m more interested in learning / understanding / improving, than I am worried about looking like an idiot.
The bottom line is if you read any of my stuff then don’t take it as 100% guaranteed to be correct, just know that the type of person I am is one that studies and experiments a lot before putting anything to paper. I also enjoy it.
With all that said, there are some errors currently on this site that I know of and need to correct. Not a big deal to most people but all the same, still not perfectly accurate. That is some of the enharmonic note names on chord tones listed on the chord pages. I will be looking to correct these in the new year.
Hope that helps. Thanks for the question and don’t be afraid to ask more.
Lee
Thanks man