Music theory: What is it and where do you start?

[NicholasFecteau]

So coming from a background of learning everything i know by ear, tab and youtube videos I constantly hear all these terms and phrases about modes and scales and it feels like I'm a third grader listening to someone speak Latin. I've tried a ton of websites and looking up information but it feels like I just can't grasp the concept of music theory, much less what they are talking about. I see scales and chord charts in the stickied threads, but it seems to me like people have to already know how to read sheet music before they can even begin comprehending the basics. I really hope this isn't an unnecessary post and if there's already a place to go for this, just point me in the right direction. But any help would be much appreciated.

 

[InfestedRabite]

You don't need to read sheet music for most of music theory. Start with the basics of intervals (i.e the gaps between notes and how they sound / what they're called). If you're already learning stuff by ear you probably have a better grounding in this than you think you do.

 

[AugmentedFourth]

In general, these are the places I point people for this stuff:

musictheory.net

Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People

I think there should be a sticky for these resources arranged for them to be accessible to newcomers.

EDIT: Just to be clear, by "these resources" I mean beginner's music theory resources in general, not just these two. Ideally included would be other websites, and probably print sources like Kostka/Payne, Solodini's book, etc.

 

[ghost_of_karelia]

In general, these are the places I point people for this stuff:

musictheory.net

Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People

I think there should be a sticky for these resources arranged for them to be accessible to newcomers.

AugmentedFourth, I think you might be right.

You're not the interval that SS.org wants... but you're the interval it needs. Sticky time.

 

[NicholasFecteau]

Augmented, thanks a whole lot! That music theory for normal people really broke it down in layman's terms.

 

[Solodini]

Give my book a go, if you want help applying theory directly to guitar. If you struggle with it at all, I'm here to help!

Adam

http://tobyrush.com/theorypages/pdf/0401modes.pdf Huh? Diminished tonic in locrian? What kind of crazy is this?!

 

[Dayn]

Musictheory.net is definitely a good one for a beginner. I also picked up the Idiot's Guide to Music Theory, though there are enough online resources.

As to what music theory 'is', it's pretty simple. It's theory about music: a set of consistent explanations that explain musical phenomena. In our case, it's based on the 12-tone equal temperament system of music.

Remember that it's explanations, not 'rules'. It will explain why a C major chord resolves to G major so well, but it's up to you whether or not you take advantage of the V-I perfect cadence. (Though you should, even the most extreme of music does, even if some musicians think they're too good to understand what they're doing.)

 

[SevenString]

In jazz, music theory tells you what you're doing after you've already learned to do it.

 

[JeffKill]

This site helped me quite a bit when I started looking into theory: Welcome to Free and Easy Guitar - Music Theory for Beginners for Guitar

 

[Edika]

There are a lot of positive in learning and understanding music theory. It will also put a lot of things in perspective and simplify things by putting them in categories. You don't necessarily need to be able to read sheet music to learn theory but it does help.

I'm in the weird position where I know how to read sheet music but I don't know 100% where the notes are on the guitar. I can play fast and do runs and read tab very quickly but if I have to think about the notes then I'm like the third grader you were talking about lol!

One big benefit of knowing music theory is the ability to work out which scales are being used in a song, which intervals and what kind of chords are being used, make progressions of chords depending on the feeling you want to give in a song and think about alternatives to use instead of just playing random chords and see what sticks, think about what scales you can put over a certain chord progression and not just fumble around the same licks you've learned by hard.

 

[russmuller]

Music theory is really just the idea that there is some sort of abstract, conceptual framework or structure to music, and most of the struggle (at least in my mind) is about developing a vocabulary to discuss how these things work.

Think of it this way: you can be an amazing, articulate, and inspiring speaker without any conscious understanding of sentence structure (clauses, objects, subjects, tenses, articles, conjunctions). The same applies to music.

And just like how you can take those abstract concepts and see how they apply to any language or dialect, you can apply the concepts from music theory to any style or instrument.

I tend to favor a very intervalic mindset with music, so I think of tones as the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc... in the scale instead of thinking about a specific key. That way instead of memorizing 12 different key signatures for every minor key, I simply understand how the minor scale is built and I can play it anywhere I want. That helps more as a player than as an academic, but I'm not an academic. lol

So my advice is to start smaller building blocks and work your way up:
-Start with notes and octaves, then divide up the octave into tones (scales).
-Study the relationships between the the tones and learn the sounds of different intervals.
-Train your ear to identify 3rds, 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc...
-From intervals, you want to move into chord structure by breaking a chord apart into separate intervals (a minor chord is a minor 3rd with a major 3rd above it, a major chord is a major 3rd with a minor 3rd above it, etc...)
-Then start applying those intervals to melodies, an understanding how the notes of the melody relate to the tones of the chord.

I think that's good way to approach it, but I don't know of any specifically good resources. Anyway, I'll quit babbling. I hope that was at least the tiniest bit helpful.

 

[meteor685]

So coming from a background of learning everything i know by ear, tab and youtube videos I constantly hear all these terms and phrases about modes and scales and it feels like I'm a third grader listening to someone speak Latin. I've tried a ton of websites and looking up information but it feels like I just can't grasp the concept of music theory, much less what they are talking about. I see scales and chord charts in the stickied threads, but it seems to me like people have to already know how to read sheet music before they can even begin comprehending the basics. I really hope this isn't an unnecessary post and if there's already a place to go for this, just point me in the right direction. But any help would be much appreciated.

learn the fretboard, all the notes to it, im no theory expert, but it has helped me understand it when im looking but something related to it.