The thing about Gary Numan, not only is he a pop star, he’s got a pilot’s licence…
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Some say he’s the John Travolta of music
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The other thing my brain does when someone mentions Gary Numan is start playing the music from “Down In The Park” with the lyrics from “I Don’t Like Mondays”.
I’m getting anti-vaxer vibes about music theory in here 
.
Stay away from that shit or your balls will fall off and you’ll never make any good music ever again!
I don’t know why people are so against it. If you don’t want to learn it, that’s okay. If you do want to learn it that’s okay too. I just don’t think people should be trying to convince people not to learn it.
You’re setting some people up for a lifetime of struggle and failure (I know, not everyone needs it, I agree, everyone is different).
But it’s not like learning music theory is a voodoo curse and you can’t control your own mind afterwards.
Try it out or don’t, if you don’t think it’s helpful, don’t use it.
Should we list all of the successful people who do know music theory? Yes there are both types, but I don’t think bashing knowledge about a subject is beneficial to people who would actually benefit from it.
This isn’t directed at anyone in particular FYI.
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Ok, but Vodou is fascinating and Haitian drummers most definitely have a sophisticated music theory.
I’m not the person to do it, but someone familiar with Indian classical music, West African or Caribbean rhythm theory could probably make a strong case here that there are music theories that are useful for rhythm driven music. Europeans got stuck on melody and ended up under-developing the rhythm side.
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Well duh, 5G is responsible for the whole music theory thing, so it’s all tied in.
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All the pieces are falling into place now. I can make them fit together how I want and now I know “they” are, and have always been, the ones behind it!
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Unless you are a Yamaha person, in which case it’s 4G that’s at fault.
♂
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Hey! Be nice now 
Poor Yamaha.
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I love Yamaha! Although I think the only products I have now are a 12 channel mixer and the Reface DX, I love their tiny outboard engines and of course the rack DX boxes.
It’s also slightly more accurate to say that music theory caused 5G than vice-versa.
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I was just poking fun 
I actually am almost fresh out of Yamaha gear these days. I still have the old EX5 but it’s going away some day when I can figure out what do with it. Besides that I had an RM1X and that left back in 2015 or something.
I still hope we see some really cool innovation from them again some day 
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Has Yamaha lost focus as a company?
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I hope not, that could be dangerous.
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Funny thing, my great aunt was a piano teacher, she taught quite a few synth players when they were kids, IIRC members of Depeche Mode and Culture Club, and some others, I was only a young kid when she died so I don’t know all the details.
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Jesus Christ.
A couple of people state the simple fact that you can make cool music with very minimal theory knowledge and yous all start losing your minds.
I’ve not seen anyone suggest that people definitely shouldn’t learn music theory, but some have suggested (with citations too) that music theory can be restrictive in certain situations. There’s a fair bit of defensiveness going on, which I don’t understand. Like, if I called all you music theory lot a bunch of 
, I’d probably get flagged (and I’d probably deserve it), but it’s ok to paint someone who has decided that they don’t need music theory to achieve their goals as “intellectually lazy” or even to compare us to anti-vaxers? I know you were probably joking, but it comes off as a bit passive aggressive.
I’ve been making music for the best part of a decade and I still can’t tell the difference between a C or an F#. I don’t know what an interval is and I don’t much care, because I don’t need to know to achieve my goals. Sorry if some of you find that offensive.
But of course, if you’re making music and feel that you need more theory knowledge, go crazy, because it’s entirely up to you what you do with your time.
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Interesting you should say that - I see a lot of people having an interesting discussion about the potential drawbacks of dedicated music theory learning - but the only people I’ve seen trying to convince anyone of anything is those that insist music theory is essential.
It’s just a conversation guys
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I think it is that part in the cinema/theatre where it stops and they come around with popcorn, those tiny tubs of ice cream and sometimes hotdogs, and smokers can go out for a cig.
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Music theory includes recognising tempo, pitch and rhythm.
‘That song is faster than the last one’.
‘This note is higher than the last’.
‘This one is more ‘swung’ than the last’.
So everyone has an understanding of music theory, no matter who they are or where they’re from. It’s important to work on what people do know and use that as a foundation rather than focus on what they don’t know and overwhelm them.
If you think it’s punk to not study music theory but you spend all day playing guitar, well I’ve got to warn you - you may be disappointed!
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I don’t think anyone is suggesting that they don’t utilise music theory, this is a conversation about learning it.
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Totally, just pointing out for anyone who feels overwhelmed by music theory that it’s a journey and everyone is on it.
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