How Music Theory Can Help Musicians
A lot of musicians like to see themselves as a lone artist. They might sit on an artist piano bench and play solos on their own, and so they never see a reason for learning how to read music or learning music theory. The moment will come, however, when a musician will want to play music with others, and start making tunes on a duet piano bench. When this occurs, both players will want a common language through which to communicate, and it’s here that having at least a littlee knowledge in music theory and reading music can have a huge advantage.
It’s often thought that if one were to study music theory, it would be like being told a “correct” way to think of music, and that any kind of freedom the musician wanted to have would be gone. This is not the case, of course, as music theory only opens up a range of options to thinking about the way music can be experienced, it’s not a set of laws. The usefulness in learning music theory is that it leads us to the long history of music, and shows us what previous musicians have discovered to be true when it comes to composing and playing tunes. We’re free to disregard all their notions and ideas if we want, but the act of learning and experiencing them is something that can greatly increase the quality of our playing.
Consider that the style of playing that is most often thought of as the “freest”, jazz music, in fact requires an extensive knowledge of music theory to be played well. When the celebrated trumpeter Miles Davis was first starting out in clubs, he was constantly told by jazz legends to “Learn those chords man, learn those chords”.
So, let us have a look at the basics of music theory. First off, we’ve got the chromatic scale. This is all the notes that can possibly be played on the piano, and the same notes are the only notes playable on a well-tuned guitar. The term “chromatic” means color, and you can notice when each of these tones are sounded that they give off a certain color, or mood, when they are sounded. What also influences this mood is the order in which these tones are played. If you hit a middle C then an E, this makes a much different mood than if you were to hit a C and then an F sharp.
Try playing all the white keys on a keyboard, starting from C and playing the next six notes, when you get to the B, your brain will be hoping to hear the C that’s coming up next. If you do hit it, you’ll notice a release of tension. Western songwriting has always been about utilizing this tension in order to create emotion.
Hopefully this article has made it apparent that music theory can be a key to unlocking deeper meanings in composing, and shouldn’t be considerd a dry, stale way of playing that’s only thought of as useful by University professors. Studying music theory can make your playing more intense, exciting and engaging.