Read this. Seriously. It carried me through all three years of Music studies at uni. It’s really thin, easy to dip in and out of and holds enough information for us electronic music nerds. To this day it is fundamental to my understanding of music theory. A little bit every other day is enough while taking notes.
I used to try learning theory off YouTube and honestly I found it a waste of time. There were a couple of great teachers but concentration and YouTube don’t seem to mix with me. Too many distractions screaming at me from every angle.
Yeah, my metaphor isn’t quite there.
Maybe a better one: music theory is like grammar.
Lots of people learn a new language to a useful level without ever entering a classroom or cracking open a textbook. Which is cool. If you don’t need it and find it boring, all good. And just doing the thing can get you to a level that’s good enough for almost everything. But, depending on your goals and your personality, learning grammar can be super useful. It can help you learn faster. It can get you over certain hurdles that more casual learners might get stuck at forever. Maybe you need that, maybe you don’t.
Consider freeform modular works, without safety nets like quantisers and digital modules, where everything is done by ear, because there is no visual/reference to go from, and no way of knowing exactly which notes are playing, if indeed any scale, it can be dissonant or harmonious without any need for even basic theory.
Maybe I’m weird (no maybe about it) but I’d recommend for people to try making music in this manner, it is very interesting “poking around in the dark” and metaphorically after a short while you adjust to the darkness and find your way.
I made a whole album like that, very fun.
I’m almost certainly biased against academia and structured “education” though, so bear that in mind.
Birds don’t have any music theory, neither did early man or some remote tribes today.
Mimicry and just doing what sounds right are also great ways to learn/develop.
I totally agree (am I just agreeing with everyone in this thread?)
I’ve even used that exact bird analogy in a conversation with a freind.
He doesn’t have any music theory, but he writes quite traditional pop music, plays guitar and if you ask him what key is latest track is in he’ll shrug and talk to you about his mastering chain instead.
Different strokes for different folks!
I guess what I should say is that for me having some basic knowledge has been helpful - but I’ve learnt very little from traditional learning resources - I try to learn as much as I can from listening to those I respect the most. I’m not a chart-topping artist so I can’t speak of that as a success story, but it’s helped me make the art I want to make.
If you want to make UK garage inspired breakbeat electronic bangers then you’re better off listening to a Bicep album than watching a Jacob Collier video.
Today with instruments like Lyra, Ciat Lonbarde stuff, etc maybe we should have a thread:
Is music theory still relevant in 2k22?
Or has notation lost its focus?
j/k
But I do kind of laugh at the assertion that theory is somehow directly related to whether or not music is valid, it is a very stale and conservative attitude. Music is for everyone, and means different things to different people, we don’t have to like it all, but at least appreciate the breadth and wealth to choose from.
Incidentally by no means am I an expert in music theory. I can’t read music (recognising which notes fall on which lines doesn’t count) but I know enough to be able to use my ears and utilise tools such as samplers and fancy sequencers to make it sound like I know more than I do. And that’s all that matters really.
Realistically, an understanding of how tempo, time signatures and polyrhythms work is all you need to get started making music. There are endless tools for helping with the other stuff.
After time, it helps to have a basic appreciation of what notes fit into what scales and why the ones that don’t fit, don’t fit. Major and minor scales. Then after that it’s the modes, which are most useful for coming up with cool riffs (I lean on Phrygian a LOT for techno) but again there are excellent tools for doing all this for you. Ableton Live now has scale locking in MIDI clip view for example.
Agreed, though that‘s what I meant earlier in regards to music theory being perceived as something prescriptive. Music theory DESCRIBES what we hear, it does not tell us what to play.
The music comes first, the theory follows. It’s an intellectual treatment of something auditory and emotional to help us connect better and more deliberately with those emotions in other people.
It really has nothing to do with a fixed structure that wants to dictate “what sounds good and what doesn’t” …rather it’s the history of what has sounded good before and WHY it has sounded good.
I think it’s totally fine and true that people can make wonderful music without a single lick of theory knowledge, just like some people can speak poetically without being able to read and write. Learning theory shouldn’t inhibit any of that freedom or naturalness or spontaneity at all. It’s really not an either or, we just gain something by knowing some of it.
It’s also inaccurate to speak of the ONE music theory that dictates everyone and everything…I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if classically trained teachers (piano, guitar, violin etc) approach it as if there were only one right way — and in that context I also understand some of the resistance and hesitation towards theory in this thread — but really there are as many music theories as there are genres…a tabla player will think of music and count music completely differently than a western drummer, and a Cuban rumbeiro will think of his rhythm instruments and rhythms completely differently yet again.
What is acceptable or established in classical guitar is at times unfitting and even ridiculed in flamenco guitar…
Personally, I can only gain something by learning from the people who have come before me and that which they have discovered and mastered. Doesn’t make me any less of an explorer myself, but it makes me more competent in leveraging some of these discoveries in my own music when and where I see fit.
It’s not a must, for sure, but there’s so much to gain with little to no cost to one’s own creativity and expression that I don’t quite get why someone into music creation wouldn’t want to dip their toes into it.
Fair point for sure, although I think it depends how literal people are talking about theory doesn’t it, but yeah guidelines/pointers/descriptions are never a bad thing.
I’ll share some thoughts on learning music theory.
I pretty much only make electronic music now, but started studying classical guitar as a kid. Studied in the conservatory, played in front of a ton of people all the time, grew my nails out on my left hand for picking, got to the point of sight-reading, etc. I reached a level where I didn’t want to play music written by some now-dead composer anymore – I felt like I was turning into a machine that turned sheet music into sound, and it felt far from creative. Of course, that’s classical for you… I’m not saying knowing music theory is bad for creativity, but it can narrow your view a bit as well, depending on how it’s taught.
I’ve been doing a really good job at forgetting a lot of the theory I learned, because I want to spent more time in the experimental realm. When I was studying, I couldn’t bring myself to break rules, and now I do it all the time. But there’s one area of theory I will never forget and find it useful every day: intervals. When I was learning theory, it all clicked when I realized what intervals were and how they come into play when constructing harmonies and melodies.
For anyone starting to learn about music theory, I think intervals are so important to understand. It’s really at the core of everything, at least the way I hear music. Sometimes I’ll still set up a sequencer to play two sequential random notes and I’ll force myself to identify the interval.
Anyhow, that’s all. Normally when people ask me how to approach music theory at first, I think it’s good to learn the usual stuff everyone talks about (chords, scales, whatever), but I always recommend understand the intervals that are involved with all those things. And training your ear to hear intervals feels like getting a musical superpower
Comforting legend You’d struggle to find a good musician who practiced hours and hours with an instrument without developing any basic understanding along the years.
I think this is a false debate. You don’t need to know mechanic to drive but knowing the rules help (and how to pass gears on a manual one).
We have on one side some people who know how honey tastes and say it is great and on the other side people who say they don’t know the taste of it and don’t need it.
The real debate would have to occur between people who know music theory and could say if they use any of it (and the answer if yes of course cause once you learnt something you’d use it without paying attention).
With moder;gear you have automatic scales, arp, quantization and even auto tune so you don’t need to know solfege, rythm, or singing. Then to get out of the main stream paths in order to produce something interesting knowing all of it helps tremendously IMHO.
It should be. Unfortunately, like almost all aspects of human knowledge, theory can be abused for gatekeeping and exclusion. It gets dragged into class and status issues. I spend a lot of time these days trying to make knowledge accessible. But it gets difficult to convince someone that a particular type of knowledge would be useful to them when they’ve seen it used to put others (or themselves) “in their place”. They understandably want no part of it.
We also tend to easily find good/bad reasons to justify intellectual lazyness. Music theory is a big emphatic expression when it is basic mathematics. No one needs to be Jacob Collier and spread it all over the place like it’s enough to make good music.
Nowadays, it is not a well kept secret, anyone can go on youtube and learn something within 5 min. Wanting to impose it absolutely as a golden pass to the elite would be as stupid as not learning by principle. As if i promise myself no to use the sequencer on the OT for the sake of it because elite uses P-locks and trig conditions.
One can also learn something and not use it, we do this everyday
As a master in lazyness though i find it verryyy useful and it saves me a lot of time and gives some nice ideas, stimulation and excitement to be able to use some music theory.
Edit: quite strange to think there’s a debate among people making music to know if the language used to describe and practice music is useful … to make music.
That’s drifting into different territory IMO. But speaking of legends let’s hear from one of the many that have succeeded without. Gary Numan in an interview with Roland:
I’m living proof that you can do it without all that stuff. There’s a school of thought that by being skilful in music theory it takes away a certain amount of experimentation. I was told by a music professor friend of mine that Are Friends Electric, my first number one single, would have not have passed GCSE music. In classical circles it was considered an unattractive sequence of notes. I remember at the time being shocked. A song that sold a million copies would have failed me my O levels! Also at college, I was learning music, writing, reading and playing, and very early on we were told to write a four-part piece for 16 bars. I wrote it as best I could. Teacher played it and said: “You can’t have that, you can’t have those notes in that format.” I said: “It sounds fine though doesn’t it.” He said: “That’s not the point.” I couldn’t understand the logic of it – who would call that an education? I think it doesn’t matter where your dots and lines fall – if when you play it it sounds OK, then it IS OK. I stopped going to college and eventually I got expelled but I just thought it was ridiculous. I’m a fan of new people because they don’t have any of that knowledge. Their ignorance allows them to do things people wouldn’t try. Sometimes it’s shit but sometimes it’s not! That’s experimentation. When I was first successful the Musicians’ Union tried to ban me for the first two years of my career because it said I was putting proper musicians out of work.
but I’d recommend for people to try making music in this manner, it is very interesting “poking around in the dark” and metaphorically after a short while you adjust to the darkness and find your way.
You’d struggle to find a good musician who practiced hours and hours with an instrument without developing any basic understanding along the years.