How to be better at theory ?

[Hink]

2 reports on the 1st page from 2 different members, I know some time has passed but let's keep it civil please.

[jancivil]

That's your version of from 'many sides... from many sides.', what. Way late to come in like that, I don't see the point. Sorry, I don't know what action was taken.

But there is a huge difference between focusing on problems with someone's statements and creating a story about a person seeking to smear them because you can't take the heat (or even make the argument you pretended you have, 'stratology'). You start in cherry-picking a statement distorting it to top somebody, and continued on distorting statements...

[jancivil]

Any time you apply something from your experience where you understand how it works, you've done 'music theory'. It isn't theory, it's an examination of known practices.

Paul McCartney knew nothing of the terms, but examine his music and it's just very knowledgable.

[Roman Empire]

2 reports on the 1st page from 2 different members, I know some time has passed but let's keep it civil please.

First time I see this. Where do you see that a post has been reported?

Sorry to be off topic.

[jancivil]

He's the moderator, he saw them in the reports box or whatever.

[Roman Empire]

He's the moderator, he saw them in the reports box or whatever.

Ah, got it - thanks!

[Atza]

If you start applying musical theory to Trance music it will stop being Trance. just one man's opinion:)

[Harry_HH]

If you start applying musical theory to Trance music it will stop being Trance. just one man's opinion:)

With all respect - one of the funniest comment I´ve read for a long time. Thank you.
You "apply" music theory, whatever music you write or anylyze, intentionally or un-.
Its a bit same if you said "you don´t apply grammar in your speech".

[imrae]

Trance music is a case where a little bit of formal music theory would go a long way, actually. You need to be able to construct a nice chord progression to do those epic buildups and you don't generally want to modulate the key. All you need to know is basic counterpoint and cadences and you can knock out as many trance buildups as you like, far more quickly and easily than by simple trial-and-error.

By comparison, it's probably less rewarding for something like dubstep where there is more dissonance and chord progressions are less clear. But I'd love to hear the dubstep that a skilled traditional composer could arrange. (James Blake has serious classical chops and it doesn't exactly hurt his music!)

[stringtapper]

Music theory used to understand music in the era of Bach is completely different to the theory used to understand Beethoven…

While jancivil's responses are almost always rather rude and inflammatory, she is not wrong in criticizing this statement of yours.

To say that the theory needed to understand Baroque-era and Common Practice/Romantic-era music is "completely different" is at least an overstatement.

There are certainly differences, but they mostly come down to evolutions in style and the expansion of harmonic syntax. But the "words" are all the same. As jan stated, a Roman Numeral analysis works just as well (or just as poorly, depending on the piece) for Bach as it does for Beethoven. Schenkerian analysis reveals the same underlying structural principles of the tonal system whether applied to Bach or Beethoven (or Schubert, or Brahms).

The real paradigm shifts occur on the chronological ends of the Baroque–>CPP–>Romantic continuum: the gradual development of the tonal system from the polyphonic styles of the Franco-Flemish composers of the 15th–16th Centuries and the previously mentioned move away from the tonal system in the early 20th Century. In the case of the latter the shift was an exponential one, while the former move toward tonality was a long crawl that truly started with the Greeks and moved on through Gregorian chant in the Medieval period, the emergence of polyphony and the development of notation systems in the 13th and 14th Centuries, on up to the 17th Century.

tl;dr Bach and Beethoven were using the same basic musical materials even though they used them in often vastly different ways.

[jancivil]

jancivil's responses are almost always rather rude and inflammatory

while 'almost always' evades definition, statistically that's not even true in this thread

kind of a rude thing to start with, I'd say.

how ya been?

[stringtapper]

while 'almost always' evades definition, statistically that's not even true in this thread

kind of a rude thing to start with, I'd say.

But what about the part where I agreed with you??

how ya been?

I've been spending too much money on Eurorack modular madness lately!

[jancivil]

IS there help for that? Is it like hoarding?

[pmimran]

I think that in music and especially in harmony there is no real theory anymore which are useful .
You can use any type of chords as long as the voice leading is good it will sound good .

Patrick Mimran