What's theory got to do with music?

A lot of times, we hear that music involves theory, and people give their 'theory' exams, and things like that. Let me clarify one thing: Theory is just lines of information meant to explain something, in brief.

Music theory is like a musical language. For instance, if I typed all of this out in Latin, half of you wouldn't understand what I'm saying (even I won't). However, if you understand Latin, you will be able to understand what I am trying to communicate.

Similarly, we need to learn music theory to help us understand music better.

Look, now if I show you the C chord on a guitar, and I tell you to find me the A chord, some of you may be able to show me, some may not. It creates an understanding of how things happen. Just by showing you the position of the chords and telling you their names, you may play well. But if someone asks you to show them another chord which I haven't taught you, you would go blank. However, if you learnt music theory, this kind of an issue will not arise.

If you know music theory, you will have NO problem, literally no problem in playing. In fact, it will make things more fun for you and prevent you from being humiliated when you discuss with professional musicians about music.

Music theory is not boring unless you aren't taking music seriously. If you are, and you love music, this will be a piece of cake for you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why it’s important to practice a boring instrument every day

Let’s face it: there always comes a point in our life where we just get bored of playing our instruments and practicing them every day. We start by skipping a day, then maybe two, and ultimately we just stop practicing, and soon we lose our interest and stop playing the instrument altogether. This has happened to me and to so many people I know, and because I got back out of this phase and continued playing, I realized how important it is to continue playing…and that’s what today’s article is going to be about.   Why does this happen?   We’re humans, and we get really bored of doing the same thing every single day. Even if we love music, if we keep practicing every single day, there comes a time when we just don’t feel like doing it anymore. So we think “okay, nothing happens if we skip one day”. While that stands true in a way, what happens is you start thinking that it’s okay to skip a day in between sometimes. Therefore, you start doing it more regularly and easily.
Read more

The Beauty of Classics

As most of you readers might have noticed, I haven't given this blog much attention for the past few months, and I'm sorry for that. I've gone through a major change in my music life, and I want to share it with you. Very recently, I had to attempt my examinations, which was quite a big deal, and I had started to lose my interest in the guitar, something just didn't feel right anymore. So, I decided to take a break. I ignored my guitars for a while, and when I was asked for fees in advance for my next set of guitar classes, I didn't pay them. I thought disconnecting for a while might get me back on track. Here's the thing: that didn't happen. My interests changed, a lot changed.  Over time, I started developing a certain appreciation for softer music like jazz, and classical music as well.  Some of you who have read more than just one post on this blog, you might know that I used to learn the electronic piano or the keyboard for six years before I star
Read more

Fitness and Guitar

Image
Apart from being a musician, I'm also a fitness enthusiast. I have been for the last 10 years. Only a few would've thought of whether the gym is going to affect your abilities on the guitar. Truth be told, yes it does affect your guitar abilities.  How? Well, we all know that the guitar is an instrument that you can use to shred on, play really cool riffs, solos, legatos, and the list just goes on. A lot of the things that one plays on the guitar involves fast finger and hand movements.  For me, I'm more of a calisthenics guy, I train in calisthenics six times a week, but I also go to the gym three to four times a week, so I don't have THAT much of a problem. Today we're talking about people who go to the gym six times a week and that's all that their fitness training involves...weights and cardio. For you guys, your gym training might just be hampering your abilities to play the guitar. The reason for this is, the workouts that you do in the
Read more