How many of you know music theory?If not,do you feel limited

[adammann]

Someone started a thread asking about where to learn about music theory. This got me to thinking...How many of you can read music? And if not, how do you make music? Do you feel like you're missing out at all because you can't read it?

I had a few guitar lessons when I was 8, and then in my infinite wisdom, decided I knew enough and quit. In junior school, I could read music to a degree. Then at 16 I got a friend to show me a few guitar riffs of the metal songs I was just getting into. But at present, I can't read music. All the rest is self taught.

I am aware of the "you have to know the rules, to break them" philosophy, but I've always gone purely by feel. If it sounds right to me, that's all that matters. I know a lot of people who are masters at music theory, but fall down in the actual delivery of the art (of course, then you've got f*ckers like Joe Satriani who've absolutely mastered both theory and the delivery )

When it comes to just releasing songs, I feel I have no need at all to know any specific music theory. But I want to get into writing soundtracks (getting paid to write soundtracks - I've written them before, but for free). I'm wondering if it's possible to use programs like Sibelius to cover making the compositions a reality, and getting the Sibelius output proofread by a proper muso...

[Xnah]

I'm not sure if "knowing music theory" really equals "reading music"... :s...

Other than that, I know enough music theory to create harmonies and know which chords I can use in a give key... But not enough to create nice jazzy chord progressions like some of my friends here can...

Recently I starting exploring loop-based remixing, and found some contests to practice and listen... What I noticed there is that some 'producers' ignore music theory, with the result of putting loops together where the chords / keys don't match at all .

Reading music: yes, when there are not too many notes at a time, otherwise I have to count and calculate their value .

[pHz]

very little real theoretical knowledge

dont feel like im missing out at all TBH

depends on your genre(s) and ambitions in music i guess

slainte rob

[.jon]

Well I can decipher staves to an extent, but definitely feel that I don't know enough music theory or posess adequate musician's skills. I feel limited, because I would like to jam sometimes with my friends who are very capable multi-instrumentalists. Knowing theory would make composing a lot faster. Less repetitions to find where this and that note or chord should resolve, less transposing around to find the right note etc.

Good news for me is that my virtual studio is finally ready, and next year is dedicated to getting the best out of it. Letting the music flow. Learn scales and chords. Practice keyboard technique. Learn the kit inside out. I love this feeling, I have goals and means to get there.

[JamieSkeen]

I think every musician should be able to communicate....notes, chord types, scales ect. Sibelius should work great......even you DAW should be fine as long as you can export midi files

[mistertoast]

I know a fair amount of music theory, but can't read music on the fly. Reading music is something I'm going to work on.

[joanaphone]

I know music theory, and played as an orchestral standard flautist for a number of years.

IMO it's swings and roundabouts. It took me a number of years to throw off the 'right' way of doing things to get back to what sounds good.

On the other hand, I can easily play in things I have in my head, and can easily translate these ideas to other musicians 'in the know'. It's like knowing a magical shorthand that buy's you into certain cliques, but a huge amount of it is BS.

I have written numerous commercial club releases and my theoretical training counted for nothing there. I have also scored ads, remixed and acted in executive production roles. In landing some of these jobs, being able to chat the lingo probably helped, although in the final analysis I believe that if you create great music, people will want it, however it was arrived at.

I know one guy who wanted some orchestral stuff on some tracks and was considering buying one of those fantastically priced orchestral rompler sets. He thougth about it for a bit, and because he is a bit crazy, he spent the same money on flying out to Croatia and hiring a whole orchestra for a week! He printed out his score from logic audio, setup his guitar in the middle of the orchestra and played then through what he was trying to get at. the end results are on a (reasonably) well known commercial recording and it sounds fantastic, so don't let anythign hold you back - if you have the ideas, go for it!

[The Chase]

I took two years of music theory in high school. Really I just learned the names of everything I had figured out by myself plus some stuff I'll never use again. Really it just pissed me off since I had to spend an hour in a room full of psuedo-intellectual arty guitarists and super elite "proper" band twats each day. Most of them made shit music before AND after the classes. I thought it was maybe a high school thing but when I looked at the syllibus of the music throey classes at college it was the same shit. You should still look into a bit of theory though.

[jackson]

Got schooled as a kid to hell and back on theory. That, and having to practice my instrument for hours a day turned me off music for years.

Now, music theory has almost no application for the style of music I write with the writing style I employ. If I do bring in live musicians though, it's nice to know I can write for them and know what the f**k they're on about.

[metamorphosis]

Screw the box. You don't need to know whether you're playing inside or outside of one to make good music-
m@

[zircon]

Took limited theory as a part of 10 years of piano lessons. Since I started writing music (4 years ago), I've taken another full year of university-level theory and it's been a huge help in analyzing music and comparing it to my own to improve myself. For the record I write electronic music primarily (sometimes I dabble in other areas, including orchestral scores) and even there, it's quite helpful.

[jackson]

Tell you one thing for sure; when I have a kid, I'm sending them to jazz school instead of classical.

[Hink]

Tell you one thing for sure; when I have a kid, I'm sending them to jazz school instead of classical.

let's hope when that time comes you let them choose

[keyman_sam]

I just finished practing a piece today. Practiced for 1 hour. Its called "Nocturne No.3 in Ab Major" by Franz Liszt. A few months ago, I listened to the piece on the net and fell so much in love with it that I wanted to learn it somehow. Did some googling, got the sheet music, downloaded it, printed it out, and now i'm sight reading my way through the piece. I've completed half the piece, but need to learn the other half.

Point being : I cant live without sight reading. It has so many advantages. And theory helps as well. here's a nice site if you need some theory :

http://www.musictheory.net/index.html

I need to revise my theory as well. I learnt theory a few years ago, but its nowhere close to what i'd like to learn.

[JumpingJackFlash]

I have written numerous commercial club releases and my theoretical training counted for nothing there. I have also scored ads, remixed and acted in executive production roles. In landing some of these jobs, being able to chat the lingo probably helped, although in the final analysis I believe that if you create great music, people will want it, however it was arrived at.

This is true. I probably know too much theory for my own good (I'm not trying to be arrogant here; I have various qualifications to prove it), but sadly, in the real world, knowledge like that rarely helps (certainly not past a certain point anyway). There are, and always have been, very famous and very rich people who make a living from the music industry, who actually don't know a great deal about the theoretical side of things. - It's the old thing: it's not what you know, it's who you know (and being in the right place at the right time).

As others have said, a basic understanding of common terminology will never go wrong, but if you really don't like the theory side of things, don't bother with it. Personally though, I quite like it (probably the same part of me that likes calculus!) so you might find that you like it too