Hi folks
There's been a little discussion around here lately on the merits of learning music theory, an evergreen topic. A few paragraphs from my blog on the subject.
http://www.learncigarboxguitar.com/content/theory-not-dirty-word
Ring any bells?
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You know that scene in the Charlie Brown Christmas show when all he hears the teacher say is "wah wah wah?"
If I could have grasped any of that I think I wouldn't have gave up some 35 odd years ago.
I've learned a lot from your site. I just learn differently, I guess. It's frets and riffs and repetition that works for me. And, if I don't get any better than I am today, I'll be good with that. It's still joyful noise to me. :)
Keep doing what you're doing Patrick... it's greatly appreciated. Just keep in mind some of us aren't there yet.
Very well expressed Patrick! I know plenty of great players who don't "know" any theory. They know the sound they want and how to get it on an instrument. But they aren't able to express verbally what they just did. I was trained(at my parents insistence) at a young age in classical and later in jazz theory and I think it helps my playing. I still play with folks who look at me like I'm speaking Greek when I say "it's in Dorian mode" Oh, I guess that is Greek! I usually don't bring this stuff up at get togethers but it sure is nice to know what to do when somebody says "play the 6minor chord there" . The nice thing about this is that there's room for lots of differing skill levels and knowledge levels when it comes to playing for fun and unless someone asks I try to not get into big theory discussions.
Theory baffled me when i started learning music from books, and hour with a good teacher sorted all that out, so did stringing up and tuning various guitars, my first efforts were an octave too high and ....twannnnggg! It's good to know ABCDEFG, sharp if a little higher, flat if a little lower between each note, octaves...well you needn't worry about them too much on a CBG, i use bar chords on a 4 string CBG usually, scales i always thought of as a paint palette with your colours or notes on, things get a little more complicated with tunings, even on a four string, but if you learn a foreign language you will sooner or later need to read and write stuff in the language, so yes most definitely theory isn't a dirty word, if you are writing songs you will need some! (-;
Thing to know about music theory is this.
1. It's music THEORY. not music law or music fact or whatever. It's not necessarily right or wrong, it's a way of looking at things.
2. It's not something you 'know' or 'do not know', you all know some, and none of us knows it all. How deep down this well do you want to go Alice? You know at we divide the audible part of the spectrum into an arbitrary number and give these divisions names (the notes) right? Music theory. You know after we cycle the notes we'll get back to the same note we started only higher right? (Music theory) ......
Mee kan no reed wut iz diz thiree an wy hee durtee???