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Did Music Theory Help?

I've been playing piano for a near 12 years. I know lots of theory but for some reason it doesn't really come in play for making melodies and stuff. Most of my ideas come from just feeling out chords and what sounds good. How about you guys?

I know what you mean. I very often bang out a lot of stuff to see what it sounds like despite my knowledge of theory. Every so often, though, if I've hit a brick wall, a knowledge of what can come next is very helpful.

quote:

Originally posted by thoughtlessjex I know what you mean. I very often bang out a lot of stuff to see what it sounds like despite my knowledge of theory. Every so often, though, if I've hit a brick wall, a knowledge of what can come next is very helpful.

For sho.

I did take piano lessons for 2-3 years. And I enjoyed it. But I just stopped going.

I took a music theory class a few quarters ago and it was great to get a big refresher.

This is a question I might make a new thread about if I don't see it in the tutorials.

But does anyone reccomend good interactive music theory teaching program?

One that I could hook up my Radium 49 up to it and just bang away and learn some fun stuff.



But yea. Theory is great to have a good knowledge of.

Re: Did Music Theory Help?

quote:

Originally posted by azndragon0613 I've been playing piano for a near 12 years. I know lots of theory but for some reason it doesn't really come in play for making melodies and stuff. Most of my ideas come from just feeling out chords and what sounds good. How about you guys?

Your feeling for chords and harmonies, didnt it come from your piano play? I learned playing the piano for 5 years and right now I cant even play the most simple songs anymore, but one thing has melted into my mind: a "musical" feeling for rythm and harmony I hadnt before... I think it still helps me a lot with composing.
I agree however that the pure theory alone doesnt help me much. I would not be able to tell in which key my song is, I would just be able to tell if it sounds harmonic or not.

I think it helps, i've been learning scales and chords for bout a yr now, and i can definitely jam a lot better than when i started.
I kinda go in spells where i just muck around, then try to learn some more theory then muck around and then rinse and repeat.
It's a long and slow process tho

I've never taken music theory in my life other than in high school, and by that time I wasn't sure about following the music career, so is not like I paid too much attention. But one thing I can tell you, anything new that you learnt about music helps, directly or not.

Took piano lessons for 6 years, learned theory for 5 years. IMO, the first 3 years of theory really pay off (knowing all the basics, what is a chord, different chords and scales, time signatures and so forth), but anything after that was no use to me.

But the piano lessons really paid off. I hated them when I was a kid, but I'm so grateful to my parents for making me stick with it for that long I've recently started playing classical pieces again, and really love it

of course, even if you say it doesn't it does, cause you'd prolly suck that much worse without it

i'm in arct piano, and its the difference between finding the right notes and knowing the right notes...admittedly, i still have my personal limitations and i have to experiment with things to see what will work, but that usually applies more to when i compose film music. trance and electronica is usually just takes the creation of a catchy riff. and i couldn't imagine having to mess around with every key on my keyboard just to form basic chords.

Music theory helps me in a bunch of ways.

1. When working out a melody / riff I know what the key is, and hence the scale, and have subconcious predition of the harmonic progression I'm using.

2 Once said melody or riff is written knowing how to harmonize correctly makes the chord progression underleath and the bass line transitions pretty straight forward.

3. Working in reverse, if I have a chord progression I know where each part of the melody needs to lie.

After that it's rhythm and details..

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