Jack Gaffney, Peak to Peak. There’s a myth that learning music theory hinders creativity. Some believe music theory is a set of rules that limit the potential of ideas. But music theory is not a set of rules, it is a language that evolved to describe music that already exists. Music comes first. Theory comes second. Theory is descriptive, not prescriptive.

At its core, music theory is a method of understanding the elements of music: melody (individual pitches arranged consecutively), harmony (multiple pitches sounding simultaneously, ie. chords), rhythm (duration, pulse and patterns through time), timbre (character of tone, piercing, hollow, etc.), dynamics (volume), musical form (large-scale structure) and texture (many voices vs. single voice).

A course on classical music theory would analyze these elements and describe their use through the history of western art music. But even if you don’t care how Beethoven treated melody, or how Stravinsky’s use of harmony and texture influenced a century of film scores, understanding some of these elements will increase your enjoyment and comprehension of music, regardless of if you’re a singer-songwriter or an avid listener.

You don’t need music theory to come up with a great chord progression. But you can use theory to dissect the idea and understand why it works well. After analyzing it, similar ideas will come easily, minimizing the process of trial-and-error.

There are talented musicians who ‘don’t know music theory’; but they’ve just discovered theory independently/intuitively. Through experience, they know what works and what doesn’t. Nevertheless, they’re missing out on one of theory’s greatest applications, a language that enables conversations between musicians about musical details. The vocabulary is classical, but the applications are limitless. Being able to talk freely about the nature of music in an efficient and comprehensive way increases the productivity of musical collaboration.

So, should you learn music theory? Yes. It won’t hinder creativity, it will increase your understanding of musical possibilities. But unless you’re an aspiring composer, you don’t need to learn everything at once. Music theory is cumulative. Studying the diatonic chords of the major/minor keys will help any musician. Learning the scales that correspond to different chords will help with soloing.

Young music students should be introduced to theory early to increase their musicianship and vocabulary, but this should be done slowly and after they’ve already had valuable musical experiences. My point is, learning any amount of music theory is helpful. You don’t have to tackle the whole mountain at once. 

For more information about Jack Gaffney Music, check out https://www.jackgaffney.com/.

(Originally published in the April 1, 2021, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)