Music Theory?

[congerz83]

I am a very basic player who wants to expand. I don't want to study bass-lines anymore. I want to be able to walk between the chords and know how and why i'm doing it. Many people tell me theory is the only way to go.

I have four concerns.....

1) I'm too old (26) to learn.

2) People say theory screwed them up.

3) I'm afraid if I try to think to hard about it, i'll screw up. (I have ADD)

4) I'm afraid i'm just too stupid.....

I was going to buy either Music Theory for Dummies, or The Idiots Guide to Music Theory. Deos anyone have any experience with either of these titles? Does anyone have any other helpfull hints?

[tennis_nick]

I am a very basic player who wants to expand. I don't want to study bass-lines anymore. I want to be able to walk between the chords and know how and why i'm doing it. Many people tell me theory is the only way to go.

I have four concerns.....

1) I'm too old (26) to learn.

2) People say theory screwed them up.

3) I'm afraid if I try to think to hard about it, i'll screw up. (I have ADD)

4) I'm afraid i'm just too stupid.....

I was going to buy either Music Theory for Dummies, or The Idiots Guide to Music Theory. Deos anyone have any experience with either of these titles? Does anyone have any other helpfull hints?

Honestly, you're just better off finding a real life music teacher, someone who knows a lot about music theory.

After 4 months, I knew enough that I could use my knowledge to develop anything I'd need from there. A great investment.

[FretlessOnly]

I'd be glad to throw you some ideas. Your concerns are, on one hand, valid, and on another, not necessarily anything to be worried about.

You're never too old (Whistler's Mother...);
Theory can screw you up if you rely solely upon it, and mainly, if you think about what you want to play during a performance. Theory is for rehearsal, be it alone or in an informal session. Once the lights are on, or during a serious rehearsal with a band, just let it flow. This, by the way, is the single most difficult part of music theory - forgetting it exists, and letting the repetitive movement of your fingering hand take over;
Most good artists likely have some form of ADD;
Music theory is not terribly complicated if you digest it small bits at a time.

But seriously, I'd be glad to help. I enjoy it, and I've got a year of college music theory (classical and jazz), plus six years of regular study with Bruce Gertz, an internationally-known jazz bassist and a faculty member at Berklee in Boston. Plus, I've been keeping up on it for the last 8 years or after I stopped with Bruce.

At the end of it all, it's just another tool. The Beatles knew nothing of theory, and they figured out some pretty nice lines here and there, didn't they? Plenty of musicians do fine without it. But if, as you say, you are tired of studying rote bass line with no good reason why they are constructed as they are, it sounds like a bit of theory might do you some good.

I would avoid the titles you mentioned; for starters, a C Major scale will take us a couple of lessons to digest.
Shoot me a PM. I'll answer as many as I can, within reason, y'know?

[8mileshigher]

I'd be glad to throw you some ideas.
You're never too old (Whistler's Mother...);

But seriously, I'd be glad to help.
...[f]or starters, a C Major scale will take us a couple of lessons to digest.

John --- was wondering if you were going to post the several lessons on the C Major Scale referenced ? I am sure there will be several people interested - and we are never too old to learn !
Regards

[FretlessOnly]

Hi Rich: Sure, I'd be glad to. I was thinking that a weekly thread might be a good idea; perhaps John and Jason or Kira could drum up a bit of publicity for it? Or, it could be more informal if need be.

Thing is, I don't right now have any way of posting written staves, so for now, things'll have to be limited to textual descriptions. If this catches on, I could buy some music composition software to post examples, which would help a great deal. Stay tuned; I'll post the first installation later tonight.

John

[winston]

I think this is a great idea and John you should be applauded for your offer and efforts to enlighten us all. Even old people like me. I thought I had better say that bit about being old before some of my "so called friends" do

[FretlessOnly]

In response to some small interest that will hopefully grow, I thought I'd post some basic music theory here. Since many of you either 1) don't care or 2) have very varied levels of theory understanding (including none), I'll start very simple and move along through intermediate and somewhat advanced over the course of time. I'll have to stop short of advanced, because I consider that Coltrane territory, and I'm not him.

But there is really very little difference between intermediate and advanced intermediate; once you get the basics, it's just different notes and harmony. And, as I posted above: "Theory can screw you up if you rely solely upon it, and mainly, if you think about what you want to play during a performance. Theory is for rehearsal, be it alone or in an informal session. Once the lights are on, or during a serious rehearsal with a band, just let it flow. This, by the way, is the single most difficult part of music theory - forgetting it exists, and letting the repetitive movement of your fingering hand take over."

Lastly, I'm going to confine this discussion mainly to rock & roll applications, with some excursion into jazz as things progress. Classical theory really has more to do with compositional techniques, chord inversions as played by orchestral sections, and that sort of thing. Not really what most of you need or want here.

So: Lesson#1 to follow. The posting function starts to get funky on my computer after too many lines of text, so these will be fairly brief or broken up into multiple posts.

[kiramdear]

John, I think you have a fine idea there. Anything you could manage to provide us would be most welcome. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance with anything.

And hey, I'm only as old as I admit. The day I stop learning is the day they can lock me up.

[winston]

John,

Might I suggest a series of threads in this section of the forum. Music Theory Lesson 1, Music Theory Lesson 2, Music Theory Lesson 3 etc. That way late comers can go to each thread in sequence read the lesson and also read the Q & A's and catch up.

[kiramdear]

The lessons with FretlessOnly will be offered under their own thread titles in this section as Brian has suggested. I took action at John's request to remove the first lesson from this thread and give it its own title, "Music Theory Lesson #1 with FretlessOnly. It now appears in the index for this section. Subsequent lessons will follow the same form. Now, if I didn't mess it up you will find it as promised in a new thread ...

[8mileshigher]

John ... real cool and appreciate you sharing your in-depth knowledge with us !

And Kira, a good idea to set it up as a seperate lesson thread ... now I can print them up and have concepts to digest and refer to

[doctorwho]

... Thing is, I don't right now have any way of posting written staves, so for now, things'll have to be limited to textual descriptions. ...

John, although it might be more work, would the freeware program tuxguitar be useful in creating staves? You could simply take screenshots and then edit them, e.g.

TuxGuitarExample2.jpg (10.03 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

[FretlessOnly]

Thanks Gary. I've downloaded it and I'll see what I can do about putting it to good use in the theory posts.

[doctorwho]

For anyone reading this thread, there are now lesson threads.

Lesson 1: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=392271

Lesson 2: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=392292

(that's it so far)