Spoiler: the music theory teacher thinks you should learn music theory. But there really are good arguments against it, and it's important to understand the nature of music theory to avoid some of those pitfalls.
Since I happened to have a 4yr old handy I had to test out your theory. I put him in front a keyboard and sure enough he pushed keys until he found f# and then said, "This is the sound of a shark".
My 4 year old said "I'm not touching that key! It will cut me". I asked him what he meant. He answered "because mommy said its F'n Sharp". I was so shocked by his comment that I spanked his B Flat. My wife had a go at me and said "go easy on him, he's only A Minor".
The most interesting thing about this is that you actually recorded it in one take, without any cuts) or maybe i just blinked at the moments the cuts occurred) it proves that you've got a very clear understanding of what you are talking about what makes your points even more pure , precise and legit. I really envy (in a good way) people, who can express themselves in such a clear manner and you are getting better and better every time)) been into playing music for 25 years now and even studied at a musical college, but i wish i had your level of understanding how things work when it comes to theory) all the best from russia!
Sometimes someone has a hard time talking well if they are into music, that reason is most likely that you are a far much better communicator through music instead of words. Which could be exactly why you are here doing what you are doing..
I haven't felt music theory making me less creative. It's just another tool for my toolbox to refer to if i'm stuck. It's kinda like when people don't want to learn things like basics of drawing cause it'll "break" their creativity. They're just guidelines to help you out. It's not set in stone.
@J Thorsson There are 3 trillion trees on Earth. One of these trees is providing you with life, and what I want you to do is to look for this one tree and apologize to it since you are such a waste of oxygen.
I've learnt by ear for about 15 years before I started getting really into Jazz and started teaching myself theory. You can get very far just by listening to yourself and others but there are limitations. So far, I have found that theory is a way to mechanise and verbalise things you "winged" before. When I started learning modal theory, I found out that I already knew a lot of it already. I just didn't know the names or explicitly defined the rules. The rules were more fuzzy and more of a 'gut' thing. There were holes, though. Things I didn't know and ways of getting myself out of corners that were previously uncomfortable. I now have procedures to get out of those. Also songwriting can be more layered because you can actually compose, as opposed to quickly winging it and choosing what's naughty or nice.
I commented mid video, I now see my comment could have just been "yeah, I totally agree" hahah I'm also posting this while still listening to you, so it may change haha. EDIT- Nope, I still agree.
I think the issue here is that most people don't understand the meaning of the word "theory". Theory does not mean rules or guides. Theory or a theory on something is just our effort to understand and explain how things work. And to do that we use "language" and "sketches" and "diagrams". That's it basically. In order to play music you have to find out how music works (but also how the instrument you are going to play with works), which means that eventually you have to find out a theory behind it. It could be the known theory or your theory. You could use the known language or invent a new one. You could develop your theory through your instincts or through observation. But nonetheless you will be playing music because you are going to find out how it works, which means you will know A theory or part of it. The sure thing is that we are not able to surpass the collective human knowledge of how a thing works just by ourselves. That's why studying theory always helps. In particular it helps to understand that something in a much more structured and a less less time spending way. That applies also to music. It's the same with science. We have OUR theories on how nature works. We use these theories on how nature works, which have been developed by humanity ever since and we make things that do not exist in the natural world for example a Cell Phone. The invention of something needs creativity (and a bit of madness) but it also needs a good theory background (which many times you have to develop alone using the existing theory). Same applies to music. Only a lot of it is already there. No need to invent again the wheel. So, I think, instead of spending time and energy in order to find out on my own how music works it is much better to learn a known music theory (there is not only one btw), or part of its basics, and use my time to be creative while doing so. PS (to Michael): I have just discovered your videos and you do an amazing job.
Let me also add that the knowledge of Theory is not killing Creativity, but most of the times the people who teach theory kill creativity (does not apply to you, Michael). There is a lot of analysis behind that particular belief of mine. Nevertheless I won't dive into that. Just food for thought.
Its all about intention. Those creativety-killing-teachers probably act with the intention of learning to read and memorize fast by recognizing patterns or trying to fit in a system they don't understand, just because it is convenient for them to do so.
I'm an artist and I think a good way to explain it would be to compare music theory to something like anatomy. It doesn't matter if you draw cartoons or if you draw realistic portraits, knowing how anatomy works will benefit your art. Similarly it doesn't matter if you write simple pop/rock songs, knowing music theory can really give you a better understanding of what you're doing. It doesn't mean you'll have to use dorian modes or seventh chords or have constant key changes, it just means you have more options.
I come from the world of writing stories (although I had a music background as a player), and composing music started to make a lot more sense to me when I started to think in terms of story and characters. You have to put your characters in different situations, and see how they do, if you want to get a story. If you understand your characters well enough, writing a story is easy, it just flows naturally, and you don't have to sit and wonder what your character would do in a particular situation, they just react, and feel, and grow. In music, your melodies are your characters, the harmony is the situations those characters end up in. There's a structure to storytelling, and there's a structure to music. Writing and music both have genres, and understanding the rules of those genres is a big help too. Knowing how to break those rules breaks you out of the cliche, but cliches aren't a bad thing, just require appropriate use, and to be entertaining, you need to subvert those expectations at the right times and places.
nice way of saying it. anyone can draw a human without knowing anatomy or drawing, some may draw a very good and some just draw very simple, but learning anatomy and drawing can help you to draw even better and more detail/realistic human.
As far as breaking the rules, It usually goes in art that you have to learn and understand the rules BEFORE you can break them. The rules are rules because they work, and understanding why they work is a huge step towards knowing how to make your art work, with or without them. There are exceptions, of course, and I don't think music takes all that many rules to "work", but it would be foolish in your education to ignore the several thousands of years of knowledge that mankind as a whole has collected from experience. Basically the depth of knowledge one person can accrue by himself in his lifetime will never equal that of hundreds of dead europeans, but it might be enough regardless.
sethraptor what rules? art is not a game, there are no rules. there is only philosophy. philosophy is arbitrary, no one has the best philosophy. the entirely of western harmony is arbitrary. the absolute best performances i have ever seen were indian classical musicians, who play by very few guidelines without any concept of harmony whatsoever. theory makes you a technician, not an artist. you can definietly learn from it, but it can also be a hindrance to creativity.
Yeah, "rules" really isn't a good way to think about it. I was repeating what I had been taught about art principles, but music is by nature abstract, so there's no need to reach for a minimum level of comprehensibility.
as long as you know your instrument, it's strengths and weaknesses, limitations. But it depends on what you want to do. I see musicians who just do studio/gigging, and they are content to just play other people's music. Those guys are the real musical technicians, as well as classical sight readers. I need to make my own music, and thus most traditional western theoretical structures I have abandoned in favor of complex rhythm, timbre, and ornamentation. There are only so many hours in the day, and if you get too deep into theory, you just don't have time to think of new ways to make music unique and interesting, which is all that matters. I don't care about being a musician's musician anymore, I want to make new exciting music for people who don't even know what a scale is, which is most people. In fact, I heard a lecture by Gary Burton one time, and he was talking about how even high level jazz guys can't even tell you in real time what the changes are in a jazz chart (other than common progressions). They can play over the changes, but they would have a hell of a time trying to tell you what chord is where without looking at the chart. That tells me it doesn't really mean anything, it's just an arbitrary way to organize music.
I love music as how it is. Theory, practical, technical, creativity, all of those are supporting each other. i start playing and making music by self-taught. no theory and etc. i keep getting better and better and one day i realize without music theory, it's so raw. and by learning music theory, help me so much. overall, all u need is a passion. when u love doing what u love to do, u can elaborate and create things. keep ur self positive, then nothing can hold u back. just do it. take time, make something, even if it sounds or looks stupid at first, just be urself. it'll be better if u keep in progress. that's what i love from art. there's no rules, there's no right or wrong. its about how u express urself. all music have their own listener. just respect all of them and appreciate any artwork. keep making music, keep teaching music, gbu all.
Hi Michael, I studied music for years in both ways that you addressed in this video, there was a certain magic to music for me prior to gaining a formal understanding of the structures underpinning it all. Once I started learning about cadences and voice leading suddenly everything I listened to was built of these smaller structures and the magic was ruined. It really had a major effect on my enjoyment of music. Since I've started watching your channel and the way you explain everything, I've started to appreciate the genius in music I listen to, it's almost like there's a new magic within the structure. I only wish I'd had the same awakening while I was at school
Alan Watts summed it up quite well: you can learn all about Music and it's theory, like a language. So if you have something to say, great! You can write it now. However, if you learn this new language, but have nothing to say; then your education was futile. soooo yeah^^
The trick is that learning any language change/fucks up the way you Thought before you learned it. It performs you in a certain way from then on. That's the toujours unknown risk to take and fear. Nothing will be the same, the thing that you fell in love with will evolve into something you don't know yet. And so some may loose it as they can't relate to the shape it has taken thus it differs immensely from the one they fell in love with. If there's something we have trouble dealing with that is modulating the intangible structures we use to modulate in the first place. Language and Symbols define us.
I somtimes use music theory to deliberately make "bad" sounding music, and sometimes i unintentionally find something that sounds good. I think it's really entertaining to hear something that's so far away from what i know. The first time i heard the chord progression Ab -> Bb -> C, I was amazed by how awesome it sounded. I really think it's fun to discover these new things within music. In a sense it's kindof like riding a roller coaster. The first time, it's feels really amazing, with adrenaline pumping through my body. After a couple of times, though, it gets less and less exciting, and you try out something else, maybe getting back to it later.
music is like maths you can either learn everything from scratch which may take a long time( by ear) or you can learn the knowledge that has already been discovered and add more to it in future (music theory.
I really like the analogy. In math, there's usually more than one method, however sometimes one method might be more effective to achieve a certain result, but doesn't the same go for music? In fact, if you delve into music, really what you'll find is math. Whether you play music by ear, or mechanise and calculate what you play - the underlying theory is essentially just math and logic.
Well, both are 'languages' so to speak, (no pun intended), so yeah, you can start where others have already beaten a path, or you can 'Speak in Toungues' lol
+DeadPistolsBrainGerms Aslong is it's designed and arranged it's music. It doesn't necessarily have to conform to the rules of theory but it can't be completely random keyboard smacking.
SuperShreyansh13 By ear, if you don't learn note by note, it makes the song that you are learning "your's". Music theory, you can learn everything note by note, but you can't have the feel if you don't change anything. Most people who learn music theory don't add more creativity. Most people who learn by ear, are forced to use more creativity and they develop better song making skills overtime. Learning by ear has more room for innovation, while music theory restricts most people with innovation.
J Guy i agree. Ive been taking music production seriously and my ear is hugely better. I got my keyboard out for the first proper jam and went on a big 20 min solo. Most was in key thanks to our michael but just didnt think to much about which keys i was playing and played what was in my head and my ears. I was so proud i had to show my wife who was actualy suprised. But the key scales is the best place to start. I see them as guides and also keeping all the parts to the key of the song which means u cant really sound bad yeah hit a few wrong notes which i did lots hahaha but it just sounded more tense and cooler (sometimes) Im next looking into polyrythms and see what i can jam with. I want to learn at least 4-5 scales just so i can swap around to j keep gigs fresh. Yes learning by ear is good but thoery will make it faster.
Hello Michael, I watched this video and your first video on chords. Really, really helpful and I am looking forward to watching and learning from more of them. I will be retiring soon and want to devote much of my time with learning the accordion. I consider myself and advanced beginner and think what I learn from your videos will enhance my playing tremendously. Keep up the good work!
You are a very good teacher. Thank you for making these videos. I find them very helpful and encouraging. This one on theory was especially useful because I find myself trying to learn everything I can, but not to over-learn it all. I think you articulated perfectly why that's a good approach.
OMG! you are so relatable. I started playing guitar a year ago, mostly by ear and came up with my own notions to make sense of what I was doing. I realize the limits of this approach. Now, I am gradually learning theory. I think its somewhat analogous to what Newton said about being able to see farther, by standing on the shoulder of giants .
Good insight! This totally makes sense because I've never really caught on to the theory stuff; I'm interested in it, but never really stuck with it. When I'm creative, I really like experimenting to find what I like, so it makes a lot of sense to me just "why" that is.
Very thought provoking sir. I'm somewhere in the middle trying to figure it out, so thank you for making this video. I'll check out your other videos and visit your Patreon as well!
god bless your informational soul. ive been playing like that 4 year old in the example and just learned about 4th notes and 7th notes all those shenanigans and i feel as if my musical limitations are limitless now. thankyou!!!!!!
This is, by far, the most helpful RU-vid chanel I could ever find. For a musician willing to learn this is sort of a treasure. Thank you very much for the biggest gift of humankind which, for me, is calles knowledge.
GREAT VIDEO! I am a very new student learning acoustic guitar. I loved the way you described in plain language the relationship between learning theory (structured) and discovering music (spontaneous). This video was not real short while being long enough to actually make sense. Well done! I have subsribed. Cheers.
this is one of the most natural and beautiful videos in youtube ive ever come across. i am a person who uses youtube a lot for learning stuff -n now when i wanted to learn music theory i accidentally clicked on it....its gone way beyond just music alone Michael💙.am a fan!
I like how you don't go much into technical stuff, and instead go straight into concrete and practical reasons and examples. Straight to the point, good video!
Very happy to find this channel. I am 45 years old, and finally able to play piano with 2 hands without beating the sheet music into my brain. The first song I am able to add chords to the left hand semi-improvised is the Dvorak New World folk tune. I can not believe what comes out of my fingers. 80% is alternating C-chord and G7 chord, 20% from trial and error that I don't know what chords they are. I am not going to play by other people's sheet music any more. My music expresses who I am, how my ethnic background relates to the folk tune, and how my life leads to how I play the chords. The music is me. No one else in the world plays it the same way.
Hello Mike! You are amazing. the stuff im learning here is something that ive always wanted to know for but couldnt figure out how for a long time. Lately i am kind of lost in the life (not like a depression but just I dont know what to do in my life) and music helps me to express myself. i dont know since when i was that eager to learn something in my life (even though i am a student in college). thank you for that opportunity. I hope you will continue what you do and get what you want in your life!
Everything is and forever will be found somewhere near the middle. Great video my friend, I am exactly in the place you've described. I've done music on my own for a long time and am very happy to have developed my own fingerprint but am more than ready to expand and get to know the scope of expression. Just got into a music school and am battling between this idea of being an "artist" or a "professional musician, pretty whether to go or not to study this stuff. Anyways, your insights put words to some premonitions of mine and for that, I thank you.
great little speech, man. I really enjoyed it. I guess, as with anything, even if you are looking for the center of spectrum, it's impossible to know what "center" is. I think it is good to strive for balance in anything you do, but even then, balance means different things to different people in every arena of life.
The most honest video about music theory I have ever seen. You seem like a really humble guy man. You have lots of knowledge but you still respect other opinions. That is great ! We need more people like you.
Well said. I was a metal singer for years, then went off and started a modern rock solo project. After that I got Logic and started with some EDMish stuff and now I'm where I want to be, writing symphonic music. When I started with the symphonic music it became clear that I needed to learn music theory. If I only knew then what I know now! Lol. For anyone on the fence about theory, learn it and learn it now. It is the tool that will bring the music in your head to fruition. This channel is excellent! You rock, Michael!
I didn't have an idea how to play music until I started watching you videos. Now I'm composing a piece for me and my two other friends to play. Learning theory and listening to different kinds of music (+ skooma), IS the source of my creativity. For me, I've always loved music, and wanted to figure these things out, but it didn't come naturally to me. Getting to know theory was the step forward in really expressing myself. It gave me a kind of system that I can work with. A sort of reference frame where I can start liking stuff together, sort of like maths. I personally combine the two things you were talking about. Because the way I do it is I learn the concepts then I start experimenting with them. If it doesn't seem to work yet, I give it some time, listen to some music where I immediately start to recognize things, which I can later implement as ideas perhaps. I think listening to music is an underrated but fantastic tool to learn. That may only be me though.
Thank u bro I been in fucking LIMBO trying to figure out and peice together whether I NEED to learn music theory or just compose by ear and figure it out myself, it's like you unlocked the answer I was looking for but it was truly in front of me the whole time thank you
great video. I've been thinking about expanding my musical horizons lately. It's been a long time since I've played and i am most definitely one of those experimental origin types. you've inspired me to study the traditional methods and "rules" as to better understand the music I have played (and will play). I have very little knowledge of music theory other than what i had learned in choir as a child. I wan't to thank you. I don't know how this video wound up on my playlist considering the thoughts i have had about the distance between myself and playing music as of late, but thank you none the less.
I'm a singer/songwriter who actually created a decent body of work in my first (and only) album (if you Google Vittoria Conn, you may find some online somewhere, like in an old podcast), and was complimented on the quality of my songs by several trained musicians. Then I started to hit the wall. I ran out of ideas. Not only did I not know enough theory, I didn't know what I didn't know. The impulse to make music was still so strong, but it had nowhere to go. Solid theory might have laid down tracks (so to speak) for that impulse to follow. It's been thirteen years of no output at all. I could have used that time to actually learn theory and been writing like crazy by now. Now I'm 60 years old. I guess I'd better get cracking! I'll take a look at all your lessons. Thanks for helping people like me.
I've been trying to teach myself how to play piano for the last couple of months with the goal of being able to write my own music to go with my lyrics. Learning theory has been frustrating so far, but this video was very helpful in relieving some of the pressure of getting everything perfect. Thanks!
This video really helped me. I am at the exact point you are describing, where I have just spent a lot of time tinkering, but now I want to know what I am doing when I accidentally do something that sounds great, that way I can remember it so I can do it again sometime. Well, that led me here. Before this video I was not sure how I felt about theory. I really appreciate the way you laid this out, because now I see there is definitely some value to knowing at least a little more music theory, because I think it will make me progress faster, as long as I don't become obsessed with it and stop playing around and discovering.
Thx for bringing up this subject. Was really interesting to learn your opinion as you are very knowledgable about music theory. I'm not that good at reading scores, I do know some simple scales and chords. But I will focus on the circle of fifths's chords as they are much likely to be in 90% of any popular songs. Music Theory is in my opinion a great tool for musician to expand your improvisation or better feels melody writing (by discovering more complex chords).
Awesome video, great dissection of some of these concepts and discussions. I've been starting to realize (mostly through your way of teaching) that theory should be there to help guide you and help you recognize things, not completely dominate how you look at music. Can't take it too seriously I guess is a way of saying it. Like sometimes I try things that shouldn't work and it can have a really cool feel or emotion. keep em coming m8 :)
Good insight Michael! I think I’m going to get a looper pedal for my guitar and use theory to make chords but then experiment with random notes on top.
I started learning theory because I seemed to be getting "stuck" playing the same way in almost every song. It's helped me to vastly expand the tools I had available for writing and improvising. I can better understand and recognize most pieces of music and my creativity has only increased since I began down this path. Your videos are a wonderful resource for anyone looking to take an intellectual approach to their music. Thanks
Music theory is like reading and writing. It's not essentially needed to speak a language, but it's really suggested you learn how to do so (for obvious reasons).
English grammar is actually considered brand spanking new ( relatively speaking ) Not that people didn't have prejudices of correct use before then. But it can be argued that grammar today ruined what was an evolving language that grew and came out of relevant popular usage and that organic nature gave some beauty to it's uniqueness depending on the zeitgeist of the times. ( English was/could be the folk music of language ) Where grammar policing usually has ugly origins in it's intentions in many cases where class distinction has more to do with it's insistence than any thing of positive value. Grammar in English is not natural. Change is. Thanks fer yer considratin' y'all!
It was actually Shakespeare that stopped the English language from evolving and this is why we are communicating in Elizabethan English. Because of Dante Italians communicate in his medieval Tuscan dialect.
I totally agree, I found since I have gone into music theory I'm finding it harder to create music, and I keep playing the same scales and chords all the time. I then realise what I'm doing and I end up just playing other scales and really miss the creativity part... being a technician I rely on a set standard of rules everyday and I can see now how its 'good to know' but its setting up road block for the creativity part. Good video.
You are incredible in explaining and offering a lot of access to aspects I wouldn't find anywhere else. You are funny without knowing it, I suppose, in a positive manner. Yes, to become a better musician, that's why I study music theory.
I learned scales and chords and played guitar for years. Then I decided to learn theory. I got a modern method for guitar work book and found a teacher. After 1.5 years of weekly 1 hour lessons and some serious study, I don't feel like I'm better, but it is very easy for me to learn songs now. I find making music is easier as I now have many new colors in my palette I can choose from.
Excellent topic! I have been going back and forth in my mind about this very thing. I want to learn Music Theory because of how interesting it is, and how much I know it can benefit me, but for me it gets to a point where it can become very overwhelming trying to learn all of the different concepts. Because of this, I feel inclined to just play my instruments and give up on trying to learn altogether, but in the back of my mind I wonder if I'm hurting myself in the long run. It is a bit of a frustrating predicament.
