will i benefit from a Knowledge of musical theory

[jopy]

Mike, I was talking about r&b and soul from the last 30 years, you've mostly cited stuff from the early 1960's. You note that Barry Gordy's early work for Motown worked a certain way, not that the later stuff which was seldom written by Gordy worked the same way.

Note in this interview with Holland-Dozier-Holland, who wrote many many of the great Motown hits, that they mention writing melody as the core of their process, and mention harmony later in the process:

http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/hdh.htm

And in another venue altogether, obviously James Brown didn't write from chord progressions first (or usually, at all).

I also wonder seriously if Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay actually started from that guitar part and not from Otis Redding coming up with a snippets of a melody first and then Steve Cropper coming up with that perfect guitar accompaniment afterwards. That would still be a song with chords, but not a song that started from the chords.

You've stated affirmatively that most songs start from a harmony and then work their way back into a melody. I guess absent other data I'm still going to suspect that melody is often primary with harmony coming second (or as part of the development process of an initial melodic fragment) for a lot of people since that's the way many songwriters I've known have worked.

[tapper mike]

It's relatively easy to graft a progression over a melodic line...once one gets the hang of it. However easier to use the progression in order to write a melody. It's also easier to score out various parts including baselines with progression in hand.

[shaulhadar]

Hi man, I would really recommend going to some teacher and learning some music and theory for at least 4-5 months. In this time you will cover most of the basics, and it will surely help your production techniques. I advise you to learn the scales and chords in the beginning, and than learn the rhythm and such.
Good luck with your production