Over the years I’ve heard countless musicians say that they won’t learn theory because it will “restrict their playing”. I’ve even heard someone say that they won’t learn scales—they would rather make up their own (I’m not convinced that this person will find a musically pleasing arrangement of music’s 12 notes that hasn’t already been found by millions of musicians over thousands of years but it’s an interesting idea!).
It’s important to understand that although the two things are closely related, music theory does not mean note reading. Note reading is the equivalent of reading a novel; music theory is the equivalent of understanding the way the author has used various language and other literary structure to create a compelling read… Music theory is the “science” behind music; it is the “maths” that describes how music works. Here’s some thoughts:
1. Understanding:
Theory helps you to understand why certain chords sound good together, why certain notes sound “tricky” in certain places, and many other things. This understanding helps you get “inside” the song and see how it is constructed rather than it being a seemingly random collection of notes and chords.. Then you are only one step away from creating your own compelling song.
2. Reuse:
Once you understand that a C major and G major scale are only one note different you can modify any C major scale patterns you know to make G major patterns!
3. Practical skills:
Once you understand how chords work, transposing a song becomes easy, and working our your own chords becomes second nature.
4. Communication:
Music is just a language. The more you understand it the better you are able to communicate with fellow musicians
5. Informs and educates:
Knowing theory makes a good player an informed good player, and ultimately a better player. So, should you learn some theory? Yep!