KVR Audio

I've looked through a few pages here and didn't see this come up as a specific topic (even though it is addressed in a limited way in a couple of threads).

I am interested in learning more about music theory (I am not interested in learning how to play other people's songs--only to learn how to compose and make my own sounds and songs better if that makes any sense). I know John The Savage says it not too difficult if you put the time in. Okay, I am planning to do that. I would like to use the Linnstrument 128 I just purchased to begin this journey in earnest. There are a bazillion keyboard and guitar layout books on this (I just ordered two posters for keyboard for fingering of chords and scales to put above my main piano keyboard midi controller), but the Linnstrument's layout is, for someone (like me) who has only a basic understanding of scales and chords, not obvious, at all. I do believe the Linnstrument has the potential (for now mostly unrealized) to become a very good tool for learning music theory while learning how to play which, along with MPE expressiveness, is the reason I bought mine.

So, I am looking for recommendations or advice from anyone with how to use the Linnstrument to learn music theory so I can play the LinnStrument in a way I have never played the piano keyboard.

Thanks for any input.

I'm sure you're going to love the LinnStrument and you will find it to be the perfect companion for learning and visualizing music theory.

The two major factors that make LinnStrument a pleasure when it comes to practicing music theory are the all-fourths tuning and the ability to light up custom note patterns/scales. This means once you learn a certain pattern for a chord or an interval it's going to be played the same everywhere on the instrument. And you can quickly toggle lights on and off to help visualize the patterns that these chords and intervals make.

As far as specific recommendations to help learn music theory on this device, here are a couple of mine. But first, just so we're on the same page, when I think of first steps in music theory, here is what I am thinking:

Intervals & their Inversions

• Perfect
• Major
• Minor
• Augmented
• Diminished

Triads & their Inversions

• Major
• Minor
• Augmented
• Diminished

The major scale.

Intermediate level study be:
7th Chords

• Maj/Min/Dom 7
• Min/Dom 7 b5
• Maj/Min 6
• Aug/Dim 7
• Min Maj 7

The 3 minor scales

• Natural
• Harmonic
• Melodic

Pentatonic Scales

Advanced study would be modes.

The Global Settings feature that lets you turn on and off the highlighting of specific notes is very useful. One example of using this is if you wanted to visualize all of the major triads and their inversions for C. Well, just turn off every note except for C, E and G. Now you can practice the three different fingerings for each inversion and see which one is most comfortable to you. This would apply to any specific interval, triad, chord or scale.

In the end you don't want the lit notes to become a crutch, you want them to be a tool for learning the muscle memory. There is a pre-built feature that lets you toggle between different scales, but I might recommend punching in the notes by hand at first to keep that theory side of your brain activated. For instance, if you want to play major pentatonic, which two notes would you remove from the major scale to visualize that?

There's a feature that lights up all identical notes on the board when you press any note. This can be useful when starting out to help you learn the patterns.

I'd also recommend adjusting the tuning on the LinnStrument (Octave/Transpose button) so that you're always playing in the same key as the song you're playing. This way your fingerings and patterns are always the same.

These are all pretty simple features but I feel like they're all that you really need, the rest is time & practice. I think more importantly, for writing your own music, the whole idea of music theory is to help develop your ear to be able to hear something in your head or on the radio and know how to recreate that on your instrument. Whether that's an interval, a chord progression or a saxophone riff. Remember, music theory isn't a set of rules to follow, it's a common language used to describe and explain music.

I would be remiss not to link to the great resource already available:
https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/support ... ale-shapes

Also, I would recommend a free mobile app called Perfect Ear if you want to train your ear to hear intervals etc.

Thank you for your informed and detailed response. I have now been all over Roger's support pages, so I will take a second look at that link. I do also have some music theory courses from MacProVideo that I need to watch and see what that can do for me.

Hi Michael,

As you start to wade into this stuff, if you have any specific questions, feel free to air them here. I'd be happy to help when I can. To that end, there are several musically-adept LinnStrumentalists here who seem to enjoy lending guidance on theory and technique. Of course, if it's a question I can answer readily, I'll do that, or recommend some online resources on a case-by-case basis.

Going forward, if you find yourself getting serious about learning theory, and want to throw some money at it, I could also point you in the direction of a colleague of mine who teaches theory and performance online. He has students all over the world.

Always remember that theory is there to support and augment your playing, so have fun with it. When applied properly, you can get a lot of mileage out of a little bit of knowledge; which in turn tends to encourage more learning. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed.

Cheers!

Hi JohnTheSavage,

Thank you very much for your response and encouragement. When I was in my mid-thirties, I came into some money from an insurance settlement annuity that I'd obtained due to a serious injury I sustained as a child. I decided to take 80% and pay off a good chunk of my student loans, but reserved the other 20% to buy my first musical hardware for a small home studio. I also signed up for a one-on-one course in music theory with a local professor at a Music School here in Minneapolis. I asked him to teach me theory, but told him I didn't want to learn how to play other people's music--I didn't want to have whatever I might end up creating to be influenced by what others had decided to create. Sort of like taking a creative writing class that doesn't tell me, "you should write like this or that author." It was great at first, with learning about scales, chords, key signature, time signatures, and other stuff I have now mostly forgotten, but he got to a point where he started to want me to play other people's music to improve my understanding of the theory I was learning. His intentions were good, and he seemed like a really top notch guy and teacher, but I didn't want to go that route so I dropped out after about 6 months. I have always wanted to go back to learning more about music theory as part of my interest in sound design and composition, but not to learn how to "play" really well. I will let others take on that role. Besides, now that I am approaching 60, I fear I may not have the patience, time, energy or interest in "practicing" other people's songs. Not sure where that leaves me, but I know I am itchy to try different things.

Following this thread with interest.
michaeljk1963, what kind of music do you play, or want to play?
I'm somewhere close to your position about not playing other people's tunes. I like improvisation. And yet, when intervals, chords and scales begin to make sense, I find that playing other people's melodies helps in putting it all together.

At some point you may want to play a chord progression. Well, chances are that it has been played before. But it depends also on what kind of music you want to make.

What I want to say is that from my experience (and I'm at the learner level, not accomplished musician at all) sometimes I get stuck in my "own music". Listening and eventually learning a phrase, riff, melody or tune makes me get out of the box I build for myself.

Just my two cents.

I "play" (more like "build") sounds based on chords and phrases that are appealing to me, although I can't say why they are, but there is very likely a reason that I could identify if I knew more about music theory.  You might call most of my stuff sort of like film soundtracks with more identifiable melodies (usually).  I have used creating sound and music as a kind of meditation, and once in a while come up with something worth recording and saving (rarely).  I don't think of what I do as "song" creation.  More like musical compositions, some with many layered sounds, some with just a few.  To some of the folks here and at Elektronauts (the other musical place I hang out), I am sure it seems very simple and probably not very interesting.  That's okay to me, though, since I am not interested in publishing my music, although I do share some of it with my clients as examples of different kinds of individual creativity (I am a family therapist by profession).  

I know what you mean by getting stuck in my own box, though, which speaks to what I am interested in learning how to do, move past the limitations of my own ignorance about music creation.  I bought some stuff this year that I thought might help me with rhythm and timing, in addition to note pitch and timbre experimentation (e.g. "grooveboxes" like an MPC One and an Octatrack).  They are fun, for a while, but I find working with drum lines and then building on it tedious and mildly irritating (not frustrating, just listening to repeating drum beats over and over while trying to build bass lines, melodies and leads on top of those drum lines starts to bug me pretty quickly).  My son, who is a fantastic guitarist (studied classic guitar from age 12 to 18 before moving into imitating Iron Maiden and then starting a few crust punk bands that he still plays in) suggested this as a way to move past the music I am currently creating. I am going to continue to explore this way of moving outside my box, while also looking into learning how to play and learn according to traditional music theory.  It's all a hobby to me, and fun, so I am kind of constantly thrilled at what happens, even if it isn't worth saving.

Hi Michael,

Having read what you've written above, let me first say that I get it. I can understand not wanting to spend your precious time learning other people's music; especially if your heart's not in it. Indeed, it can feel like a retread at times, and if you're not aspiring to be a professional session player or musicologist, studying a vast repertoire is certainly not as crucial. However, whether you choose to learn theory without a musical reference point, or choose to study the works of composers past, of this you can be sure — all roads, as they say, do eventually lead to Rome. That's a good thing, in my opinion. It's important to acknowledge that music is a language, and the structures of that language can only be escaped to a point, before it becomes an exercise in semantics or stops making sense altogether. To that end, the more theory you learn, the more you will simply start to recognize those concepts in the music around you. It’s inevitable.

I might add that it is beneficial to have a healthy reverence for the brilliant music of yore. We are, all of us, standing on the shoulders of giants after all.

That aside, the first unwritten rule of music is “if it sounds good, it is good.” So, you can take some comfort in that, with respect to your own music, regardless of your level of proficiency. That said, I can assure you that having a grasp of music theory will never hinder creativity; it only stands to explain why things sound good, and in turn give you a greater palette to work with, by way of understanding what your options are when faced with the question “Now what?”

Ultimately, the end goal is to recognize and understand the relationship between scales and chords: i.e. knowing how chords are built, and what scales they are derived from, will allow you to reverse-engineer any composition (be it yours or someone else's) and, in time, allow you to improvise over said compositions instinctively.

All to be accomplished in small bites, of course, hopefully out of genuine interest, as questions present themselves to you.

Cheers!

Very inspiring John. Thanks for the encouragement and for your enthusiasm about music in general and for the Linnstrument as well. I truly enjoy reading all of your posts here and at Elektronauts.

I am actually curious about why certain things sound pleasing to my ears and other things do not. I also enjoy creating disharmony and dissonance as well, which is probably why I went straight into synthesizers right away--the vast pallets of sound design possibilities was very alluring, including peaceful rich pads, but also strikingly bizarre and even alarming warped sampled sounds. I have a setup in my home now that allows me to a simple triangle oscillator from any one of several analog or digital synths, or combine multiple oscillators and samples from several boxes, add any number of filters and effects and then play them simultaneously to create deeply moving, evolving and at times discordant soundscapes. I feel grateful to be moved by music and sounds and also to have the resources and opportunity to explore it freely, whenever I want.

michaeljk1963 wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 3:04 pm Very inspiring John. Thanks for the encouragement and for your enthusiasm about music in general and for the Linnstrument as well. I truly enjoy reading all of your posts here and at Elektronauts.

Thanks for the kind words, Michael. Just know that I appreciate this community and Elektronauts very much. I surely get as much or more from them, than they get from me; especially in these hard times. I can honestly say, after nearly two years now without a gig to play, if I didn't have my colleagues to commiserate with and these communities to turn to, if only to remember that I am a musician, I might actually despair.

Cheers!

My son just started playing gigs again a few weeks ago when things started to open up in Portland, where he moved right before the Pandemic to further his musical career, so I know from him how hard its been to practice, write, practice, but not play any live shows. Hopefully, you'll be able to start playing again soon, and some of us who've been following your posts, will even be able to come and watch you play your Linnstrument some time!

We're not that far apart then. Vancouver, BC is home for me.

There are some small-venue gigs popping up here and there, but they don't come with much of a paycheque, and with the venues struggling so much...

Unfortunately, the kind of touring I do requires the world to be open for business on a larger scale. I had tour plans fall through in October, and then for January as well; so the next window to get back out on the road will be April. Here's hoping...

In the immortal words of David Lee Roth "No matter where I go or what I do, it ain't no good without an audience."

Cheers!

michaeljk1963 wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 4:37 am I "play" (more like "build") sounds based on chords and phrases that are appealing to me, although I can't say why they are, but there is very likely a reason that I could identify if I knew more about music theory.  You might call most of my stuff sort of like film soundtracks with more identifiable melodies (usually).  I have used creating sound and music as a kind of meditation, and once in a while come up with something worth recording and saving (rarely).  I don't think of what I do as "song" creation.  More like musical compositions, some with many layered sounds, some with just a few.  To some of the folks here and at Elektronauts (the other musical place I hang out), I am sure it seems very simple and probably not very interesting.  That's okay to me, though, since I am not interested in publishing my music, although I do share some of it with my clients as examples of different kinds of individual creativity (I am a family therapist by profession).  

I know what you mean by getting stuck in my own box, though, which speaks to what I am interested in learning how to do, move past the limitations of my own ignorance about music creation.  I bought some stuff this year that I thought might help me with rhythm and timing, in addition to note pitch and timbre experimentation (e.g. "grooveboxes" like an MPC One and an Octatrack).  They are fun, for a while, but I find working with drum lines and then building on it tedious and mildly irritating (not frustrating, just listening to repeating drum beats over and over while trying to build bass lines, melodies and leads on top of those drum lines starts to bug me pretty quickly).  My son, who is a fantastic guitarist (studied classic guitar from age 12 to 18 before moving into imitating Iron Maiden and then starting a few crust punk bands that he still plays in) suggested this as a way to move past the music I am currently creating. I am going to continue to explore this way of moving outside my box, while also looking into learning how to play and learn according to traditional music theory.  It's all a hobby to me, and fun, so I am kind of constantly thrilled at what happens, even if it isn't worth saving.

I don't record either. I've spent the last couple of years playing with (soft) synths and learning from it. For a while I thought I would like to sequence music but I think is funnier to play the Linnstrument, treat it as a "real instrument", which demands practice of, yes, music theory and, at the same time, playfulness around chords and appealing phrases.

Actually the basics of music theory is not that hard, specially when you are already building "sounds based on chords and phrases" that are appealing to you. Plenty of material on-line for that already if you give it time and patience. How far you go with that is up to you, though.

Thanks for the "normalization" of what I already do in my (our) approach to "music." As it turns out, I had a couple of books I bought back in 2014, which was the last time I had a real hankering for figuring out note locations and basic music theory, specially targeted toward "computer" or "electronic" music composition. They are both by Michael Hewitt. one is called, "Music Theory for Computer Musicians" and the other is called "Composition for Computer Musicians." I had started to read the first one back then, but never even cracked open the other one. Here's an irony in all of this, I vaguely remembered buying them after seeing them on Amazon, and then Amazon told me I'd already purchased them, but I couldn't find them on any of my bookshelves (strewn throughout my home, office and cabin). I found them last night. They'd been part of a stack of books I used to elevate one of my two pair of studio monitors (almost quite literally "paper weights.)" I've replaced them with a couple of StarCraft Core Rules books I am not using since my friends and I have taken a break from our campaign, so now they are prominently waiting on my night stand! I don't really care about "reading" music notation. I do care about knowing where to put my fingers (on a piano keyboard or Linnstrument) to make interesting and intentional sounds.

michaeljk1963 wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2021 3:21 pm I've looked through a few pages here and didn't see this come up as a specific topic (even though it is addressed in a limited way in a couple of threads).

I am interested in learning more about music theory (I am not interested in learning how to play other people's songs--only to learn how to compose and make my own sounds and songs better if that makes any sense). I know John The Savage says it not too difficult if you put the time in. Okay, I am planning to do that. I would like to use the Linnstrument 128 I just purchased to begin this journey in earnest. There are a bazillion keyboard and guitar layout books on this (I just ordered two posters for keyboard for fingering of chords and scales to put above my main piano keyboard midi controller), but the Linnstrument's layout is, for someone (like me) who has only a basic understanding of scales and chords, not obvious, at all. I do believe the Linnstrument has the potential (for now mostly unrealized) to become a very good tool for learning music theory while learning how to play which, along with MPE expressiveness, is the reason I bought mine.

So, I am looking for recommendations or advice from anyone with how to use the Linnstrument to learn music theory so I can play the LinnStrument in a way I have never played the piano keyboard.

Thanks for any input.

I have not read all the responses to your question, but here’s my 2 cents…

Ditch the posters, you don’t need them.

When it comes to figuring out traditional harmony and chords, it’s all based on how the thirds stack, and this is really easy to see on the LinnStrument when you look at any single row no matter how you have the rows tuned. Want a major chord? Stack a major third under minor, or four half steps under three, and reverse this for a minor chord. Need a 7th? Stack another third. If you enable the feature to have the instrument light up all instances of where the same notes occur as you play them, you’ll see all the other ways to play the same chord as well as all the inversions no matter what tuning system you use.

I have mine set up to only light up sharps (or “black” keys) and no accent notes. By doing this each row looks to my way of thinking like a piano keyboard, easily showing the locations of the half steps. I use tritone tuning (interval 6) and it looks even more like stacked keyboards.

One of the virtues of the piano is the keys are laid out in a way that literally show you the distribution of half and whole steps in a way other instruments can’t, which is why it’s so much more difficult to learn music theory on a guitar or tuba or what have you than it is on piano, but by setting up the leds on the LinnStrument carefully, everything is displayed in much the same way and you have the virtue of not having to learn multiples of different fingerings because of the isomorphic layout.