Trouble understanding why some people are reluctant to learn music theory.

[vurt]

I think it's a combination of the cultural elitism and reliance on lots of memorization that gets people down.
Not everyone is going to experience the cultural elitism, but if you compare music theory based tunes to everything else it starts to stick out like a sore thumb.

psst, all music is "theory based" even if not all musicians understand music theory.
even the weirdness i do

[BertKoor]

> As to math and music theory, there isn't anything beyond basic arithmetic in M.T. per se. Music is a language.

Math is language as well.

But music is about logical patterns (eg what number comes next: 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, ??) which is what math-minded people usually are good at.

Exempt B: Gödel Escher Bach

[zerocrossing]

I think because it's taught so poorly. I once asked my music teacher about modes, and they rambled on for a long time in some way that made absolute zero sense to me. A while later, I asked my brother (Berklee grad) and he made it perfectly clear in about 2 sentences.

[jancivil]

> As to math and music theory, there isn't anything beyond basic arithmetic in M.T. per se. Music is a language.

Math is language as well.

But music is about logical patterns (eg what number comes next: 1, 5, 2, 6, 3, ??) which is what math-minded people usually are good at.

I have no idea what that is expected to convey. It strikes me as silly that I would need to say 'verbal language' when anybody knows what I'd said. One supposes the blank filled in will be the number 7. How that is supposed to address <beyond *basic arithmetic*> beats me. I coulda sorted that when I was five, and believe me I'm not mathematics-adept.

[BertKoor]

No, you don't need to say 'verbal'. I should have inserted a :-P there.

You'd be surprised how many people suck at basic arithmetic and/or spotting patterns which are obvious to us.

[Bytbyt]

Music is not a language by Carla Scaletti https://ssc-media.com/Movies/KISS2010/S ... SS2010.mp4

[SNBeatz]

Personally I've tried multiple times to "learn" theory but past learning basic Major/minor scale structure and scale degrees my brain just seems to stop cooperating. Maybe I'm just dumb or something but it literally feels like beating my head against a brick wall and nothing ever seems to "stick".

[SILICON_SPECTRE]

I learned music theory more as a language to describe different sounds. I think it does help to conceptualize some things like understanding what notes are characteristic of the sounds of different chord progressions or modes, or how to use mode mixture. Overall though, I make sort of dissonant rock and left field electronic tracks and I don't really follow any "rules" from music theory. So in the sense of helping compose it is more about thinking through certain ideas, but it doesn't tell me what to play. It's always back to sounds good = is good.

[gulugulufish]

I'm one of those people. It's not that I don't know ANY music theory, like. I played piano, i played in band in school, I used to read music at a fairly basic level. I know that chords exist, I know basic shit like major/minor scales, can transpose, and what modes are (can't remember the names of each of them but roughly remember how they sound). Once it starts getting into more complex chords it starts feeling like arithmetic and it takes me out of the fun of what music is. I just couldn't care less what it's called it just becomes extremely boring and sucks all of the life and inspiration out of music since it's such an intuitive thing for me to just know what sounds nice and I'd rather not sit there trying to figure out what it's called. Most of the time I don't think that much about what the scales I'm using or chords are, if I did I would probably overanalyze and be like "oh I'm leaning too much on such and such scale I really need to up my game" and I'd probably start producing some wonky sounding shit as a result of realizing how simple what I'm doing really is. The crazy irony is that, in terms of music, the most interesting aspect of the art to me is melody/harmony/emotion and how you can put them together in time to evoke something and tell a story.

I'm sure theres some happy medium and I'm missing out on some awesome tools that could help me build interesting melodies and progressions beyond my comfort zone, but for whatever reason once somebody starts explaining the circle of fifths I get bored immediately. Shit just seems so arbitrary and self-referential and I find most music that is being analyzed or talked about to be boring. I'm not saying I'm right, I don't necessarily believe I'm right, it's partially learned helplessness. I'm just saying this is how far I go with it and trying to be honest.

[BertKoor]

I'm one of those people. It's not that I don't know ANY music theory, like. I played piano, i played in band in school, I used to read music at a fairly basic level. I know that chords exist, I know basic shit like major/minor scales, can transpose, and what modes are (can't remember the names of each of them but roughly remember how they sound).

Sounds like a fair foundation. I don't think the rant is about people like you, but about the truely ignorant. Yes, one can care even less.

[EatMe]

Q: Why do some hobbyists or music producers avoid learning music theory?

Why?

1. "Because being a musician" in reality is somewhat different than the "idea people have of being a musician". Just let go, and then do what the lead guitarist plays without him explaining to you what he does. In whatever tempo, whatever tuning, don't tune to the breath instrument section, you're instantly famous and millionaire. That's what people would think, instead of hours and days and weeks and years of unpaid practice, studying, lessons, sessions...

2. Humans are curious. But they also have a limited attention span. That last would be the biggest obstacle, or problem, to learn music theory, because it is difficult to understand and sometimes requires re-reading before you even understand all the used concepts and envision them in your mind.

3. It has to be presented as edible one-cookie. My wife, who constantly wants to cook with vurt, instead of reading books about math, complained that nobody promoted the 800 pages of music theory for classical musicians in a one-swipe and learn everything app. Neither did they promote the more than a thumb long thick books about computer programming as being something you could do in one press of a button.

4. We do not need you to learn music theory enough. It is a relevant science, but nobody actually pays more than $0.002 for a Spotify listen with 20 minute ad.

[vurt]

My wife, who constantly wants to cook with vurt,

when you say "with" you dont mean as an ingredient?

[EatMe]

My wife, who constantly wants to cook with vurt,

when you say "with" you dont mean as an ingredient?

I have asked my wife before to mind when cutting the carrots for the soup, to not include any of the kitchen attendees thumb by accident, and that if any of this happens, then to make sure that it does not end up in the soup but gets taken care of with proper bandage and plastering to be found in the first aid box. My wife never tells me what she put in the soup and I suspect her from using pre-made cans as main ingredient, but do rest assured, that if my wife would present any ingredients not present under the E-numbering or on the food centre website we have, that I will not hesitate and type a very angry letter to her and that I am going to go cheat my wife then also, go over the border, and ask for a sandwich with Chinese.

Let there be no discussion about my wife here, please. I have already proposed to eat more vegetarian instead of a direct marriage.

[vurt]

im not interested in your wife, im just worried im going to be eaten!

[EatMe]

im not interested in your wife, im just worried im going to be eaten!

Don't worry. I will take away your fear with later presentable irrelevance after I first have to finish my wife in your dinner.