Any Freaks chipping away at learning Music Theory like me

InHiding19

Just curious.

rollings

InHiding19 wrote:

Just curious.

What is this "music theory" you speak of?

STAYSEA

Tar balls

inlet13

I don't get the idea of music theory. I understand learning other people's songs, and how that can improve someone's own writing. I also understand that scales and whatnot matter and certainly make a songwriter better.

That said, there's no real "theory" to music, at least in my opinion. I kinda think it's just there... and musicians, particularly gifted ones, know or learn how tap into it. Sure, someone can improve your ability to tap into it with practice, but is there a theory on how it should work? I'd say no. To me, it's like explaining sight. We can't really explain it... we just see. For gifted musicians, I don't think they spend their time breaking down what they are doing when they are writing classic songs... they just do it.

he.who.forgets

I think it's more about why the human ear finds some tones to be pleasant when played together and some not. A lot more complicated than that but in it's most very basic form

DewieCox

inlet13 wrote:

I don't get the idea of music theory. I understand learning other people's songs, and how that can improve someone's own writing. I also understand that scales and whatnot matter and certainly make a songwriter better.

That said, there's no real "theory" to music, at least in my opinion. I kinda think it's just there... and musicians, particularly gifted ones, know or learn how tap into it. Sure, someone can improve your ability to tap into it with practice, but is there a theory on how it should work? I'd say no. To me, it's like explaining sight. We can't really explain it... we just see. For gifted musicians, I don't think they spend their time breaking down what they are doing when they are writing classic songs... they just do it.

Music theory is kinda like math or time. It's just a scale to put things in to some sort of perspective, a common language.

I think you're being a bit naive in saying gifted musicians don't spend time breaking down what they're doing scientifically. I don't think they sit and map stuff out(though often times they do) and I'm not saying that songs are always written following these rules, but good musicians know how to add or subtract a note here or there to give it a certain feeling. I think it's just something that becomes second nature. I mean, it's cool to know that certain ideas have just been spawned by a "lucky" hand landing on the fretboard in the perfect way, but it's also pretty cool when a player knows what feeling they wanna convey and just how to achieve it. My point is, most pro musicians that we listen to have a pretty strong grasp on theory in one form or another.

inlet13

DewieCox wrote:

inlet13 wrote:

I don't get the idea of music theory. I understand learning other people's songs, and how that can improve someone's own writing. I also understand that scales and whatnot matter and certainly make a songwriter better.

That said, there's no real "theory" to music, at least in my opinion. I kinda think it's just there... and musicians, particularly gifted ones, know or learn how tap into it. Sure, someone can improve your ability to tap into it with practice, but is there a theory on how it should work? I'd say no. To me, it's like explaining sight. We can't really explain it... we just see. For gifted musicians, I don't think they spend their time breaking down what they are doing when they are writing classic songs... they just do it.

Music theory is kinda like math or time. It's just a scale to put things in to some sort of perspective, a common language.

I think you're being a bit naive in saying gifted musicians don't spend time breaking down what they're doing scientifically. I don't think they sit and map stuff out(though often times they do) and I'm not saying that songs are always written following these rules, but good musicians know how to add or subtract a note here or there to give it a certain feeling. I think it's just something that becomes second nature. I mean, it's cool to know that certain ideas have just been spawned by a "lucky" hand landing on the fretboard in the perfect way, but it's also pretty cool when a player knows what feeling they wanna convey and just how to achieve it. My point is, most pro musicians that we listen to have a pretty strong grasp on theory in one form or another.

I get what you are saying, and I think our disagreement may just be semantics. I think it's the word theory that bothers me. There's no theory in my opinion to music, or there shouldn't be. It's not a science, it's an art. I get trial and error and whatnot (and that does occur in art), but I really think that the term music theory is a misnomer.

I equate people who try to learn "music theory" to people who try to study painting. My point is the best painters don't study painting, they do it. Sure, they may take this and that from someone else's work, but they don't sit down and study "art theory" thinking that one day they'll wake up and just know the secret of great painters. That's way, way too simplistic. Art is expression and so is music. This whole thought of learning your expression from someone else (or a book) is absolute rubbish to me.

I'd say I whole-heartedly disagree that most pro musicians have a strong grasp of theory in the form of the term Music Theory. Instead, I'd say they know how to play music and have learned how to express themselves along the way. Sure, 9 out of 10 may play a note when it's called for, but that's having an ear for music in my opinion. Once again, I think our disagreement may just be semantics. But, what I'm trying to say is these pro musicians that we listened to (most likely) didn't sit down with a book on music theory and think they were going to write great songs (or great riffs) after they went through it. Instead, they played covers and wrote their own. Eventually, they wrote a great song, or added in one way or another to a great song.

Sorry for my rant. I just hate the term music theory. It really bothers me, as you can see. :geek: