Hey All,
I'm new here but been a lurker for quite a while, my buddy 006 posts here a lot and he got me into reading here! Anyways, I saw this and though I could have something constructive to add.
I think a lot of people get a very wrong impression of what music theory is and does:
1) It does NOT limit you, there are only rules in classic composition such as baroque style etc., there ARE guidelines that if you follow them you will always sound like you know what the hell you are doing. But let me be clear, in modern music of any kind, contemporary classical, jazz, whatever else there's no rules, there are literally names for every single note you can play as an extension of a chord, it's just knowing how to target it so it sounds smooth and knowing how to resolve it so it works BEST, but anything truthfully goes. We'd never get anywhere if EVERYONE had to play by rules. Anyone who stops in the middle of a solo and says no I can't do that because theory wise it's wrong, clearly, does not know or understand music theory. It's just a foundation to build upon.
2) We all hate theory nazi's, I don't care what kind of music you like, no one likes to be told what they think sounds cool sounds like shit... but the reality is you can use ANY of the tones available, you've got scale degree 1,2,3,4,5,6 then of course the dim7 dom7 maj7, then you've got your 9, 11, 13 which can be modulated up or down by half steps, so there is literally a name for every single note, chromatic or diatonic and how it relates to the scale, NOTHING is off limits, however; to our ears which has been stated above, we have an inherent knowledge from listening to music for our entire lives so we have a "feeling" as to what sounds better, so many transitions will sound stronger or smoother or more dissonant etc., to our ears.
3) Don't ever let anyone tell you theory isn't useful, or it's scary, or it's hard, none of these are truths, I'm not exactly the smartest guy around, and I'm even picking up theory, I sucked at it, I mean horrifically bad when I first started, I could barely tell you what notes were in a given triad, I had no idea what the hell anything did, meant, or how it was related.
4) Theory will NOT hinder you creatively unless you LET it, if you think it's some black magic voodoo and you can't step outside the norms, yea it's going to hurt you, if you focus on proper voice leading, transitions and classical rules while your writing, metal, rock, blues, jazz or progressive stuff, yes it will hurt you. If you let your self become so focused on the analytical side of things rather than the making music, YES it will hurt you. However; the majority of the time it's a help, it makes it so you can say oh hey, I know already were in a major key so the strongest chords or a IV and V, or I'm in a minor key so the III is major, or I know that the Dorian mode of D is the same key signature as a C major scale. It's basically just a musical utility belt that allows you to have options and know what WILL work easily in a given situation and how you can best operate in that situation.
5) You don't need to be mindlessly running around playing shapes, patterns, and not knowing or understanding how your relating to any given key, note, chord, scale, resolution. I do this to this day, we all operate at different levels of theory, I'm getting BETTER about knowing what I'm playing, focusing on chord tones and stronger notes, resolutions and transitions, but the reality is I'm still VERY VERY weak in this department. The BEST guitar players I know, keep track of where they are, what notes they are on, how they relate to what they are playing over, and where they can go that will sound good and have something to say rather than letting their fingers do the work, they are thinking about it and literally composing on the fly. To me this seems nearly unobtainable and is incredibly advanced but a point at which I hope to be some day before I die... that being said it just seems impossible, but I know it can be done, because I can stop any of these guys during a solo, and they can tell me what note they were on, why they just played what they played, what they were going to play next, and how it all related to the chord or progression they were playing over.
It's all about how far you want to take it, and how much value it is to you, what is your goal as a musician, do you want to know enough to get by and communicate at a basic level, or do you want to hear something and know that your hearing a maj9th chord, or that someone is playing a double chromatic approach note to the maj7th, are you going to be a studio musician where your playing over the biggest pop songs in the world, or are you going to be an engineer. It's all about what skills you need to develop for the job you want to do, I say the more the better no one ever got hurt from knowing to much, just from over thinking, the more you know the more control you have over a situation. Just like when someone sits down to mix a song, if they only know how to hit the record button it's not going to get you very far right? With music we can do a lot with our ears, and there are countless great musicians that play just by what they hear, but it really kind of frees you up and takes you to an entirely new level when you really understand what your playing and why your playing it and how it's interacting with all the other chord tones, instruments, and singers etc.!
Hope that helps, great forum here by the way!
Dallas
