Why learn music theory? What's his real use?
The music theory isn't a rule: it's the language that explain what's already ringing. We tell you what's good for your goal and how to study it without boredom.
Because it allows you to understand what you play rather than just repeat it. With music theory you learn songs faster, you better remember them, you speak with other musicians in their language, improvises knowing what grades work and have tools to compose. And if you think about studying music at university, it's not optional: admission tests evaluate them.
It's not about memorizing rules. The good theory goes from the hand of an ear and an instrument: it name what you hear and helps you listen to what you haven't noticed.
To sum up
- The music theory describes how music works. It's not a regulation that limits creativity.
- It helps you to learn and memorize Repertoire faster, because you recognize patterns rather than loose notes.
- To improvise and compose it's a toolbox: scales, chords and progressions that you use on purpose.
- The music careers in Colombia usually evaluate theory, reading and dictated at their entrance test.
- It's better to learn how to apply them: with your instrument, with songs that you love and with listening exercises.
What's Music Theory (and what's No)
Music theory is an organized explanation of phenomena that exist before her: why two notes sound tense together, why a song seems to end up in some chord, how rhythms are grouped. First was music and then the theory came to describe them.
That's why this isn't a rule. Many popular musicians play very well without studying formal theory, because they have been listening to it. What the theory does is to accelerate that process and give you words to think about and talk about what you hear.
It includes several areas that are studied together: reading and writing, intervals and scales, chords and harmony, rhythm and commas, form and analysis, and hearing training. If you are interested to know how to practice the reading and atoning part, read [what's the solpus and how to practice it]](/blog/que-es-el-solfeo-y-como-practicarlo).
To understand what you play: you learn faster and forget less
Imagine two students with the same song. One memorizes a sequence of positions. The other note that the verse goes from first to fourth and fifth, that the chorus uses those chords in another order and that the only goes out of the pentatonic scale. The second learns more quickly, realizes them more time and, if lost in full presentation, knows where they are.
- A memory by patterns. To remember "four bars first, two in quarter and cadency fifth" is far easier than to remember forty loose chords.
- Transport. If the singer needs the most serious song, you know how to change her tone and get her back from scratch.
- Read cipher and scores. Do you understand an encryption as C, Am7 or G / B, or the written part of a band, without dependent on tutorials.
- Test with others. Phrases such as "we go to the bridge," "the modular choir" or "we pass to the relative minor" are no longer a mystery.
A close example: many vallenato, popular and rock songs are supported by the same three chords, first, fourth and fifth. When you understand them, you stop seeing a hundred different songs and start to see an same skeleton with different clothes.
Improvise and compose with intention
Impairment looks magic till it's broken up. A good improviser doesn't play random notes: He knows what notes belong to the chord that sounds, what they create tension and how to solve it. That's theory, though often they are learned by playing.
- At blues and rock, the pentatonic scale and the blues scale give you a map for your first solo.
- In jazz, Iii-V-I progression appears everywhere and recognition prepares you for hundreds of themes.
- In the salsa, understand the key and how they organize montas and mboth helps you to get and get in and out of the right place.
- In Andean music, knowing the typical cadences of corridors and bambucas allows you to accompany themes you have never heard.
To compose something similar happens. Having a vocabulary of chords, knowing how to modular or how to build a breathing melody lets you choose, rather than depend on what first goes out in the instrument. Theory doesn't write the song for you but it opens up more ways to get to it. Tools as the [circle of hundreds]](/blog/circulo-de-quintas-explicado) That's just how you get maps to move about with your knapshots.
What theory to study according to your goal
Not everyone needs to study the same or in the same order. That table is an overall direction that your teacher suits your case:
| Your goal | That's where to start | How do you note progress |
|---|---|---|
| Play songs with friends | Acordes, degrees, rhythm and form of song. | You get out more quickly and transport with no problem. |
| To better sing | Intervales, melodic reading and hearing training. | Safer and more secure and you learn Repertoire by reading. |
| Improvisar | Stages, arpegtiums and frequent progrestions of the genre you love. | Your jobs stop ringing and start talking something. |
| Compose or produce | Harmony, construction of melodies, form and arrangements. | I mean, you finish songs and you know how they work. |
| Play in an orchestra or band | Reading at first glance, compas, keys and transposition. | You read your parts faster and get less lost at rehearsals. |
| Proof of of admission | Solpseus, dictation, basic harmony and general theory. | Solves reading and dictated from the level requested by the program. |
If you want to study music at university
The theory here ceases to be optional. The music programs in Colombia tend to evaluate theoretical knowledge, rhythmic and melodic reading, and dictated music and, according to the program, atoning. The exact level changes from one university to another, so we should review with time the requirements of the program to which you aspire.
The most common mistake is to leave the theory for the last few months. Hearing training and especially dictation are advanced at a slow and constant level and does not solve itself by studying with an aim. If you go that way, at how to prepare for the music admittance test you find an overall plan and at the [preschooled music] page](/preuniversitario-musica) We'll tell you how we come with that training.
What it costs at first
- It can feel abstract. Fingerprints, armores, degrees... if you don't connect them with the sound, they'll be quick to leave.
- The ear goes slower than his head. To understand what a third minor is takes a minute and to recognize her in the ear without hesitation takes quite more practice.
- A stage of thinking too much. When you start to analyze, you may have to play with less flares for a while. That's what you think about today, with practice you'll feel.
- He's applying for registration. It's oxidized as a language if it isn't used.
How to study her without her becoming bored
- Always with sound. Each new concept is touched or sung. An interval that you only know how to define on paper you still don't know.
- Apply her to your instrument. If you play guitar, look for a scale at the diapason, if you sing, get into it, if you play piano, put the chord into several positions.
- Do some music that you like. Take out the chords from a song you listen to every day and ask yourself why it works.
- A little and a little. Ten minutes a day of listening and reading give up more than two hours on Saturday.
- Write something about you. A tune of eight bars or a new progression fixes what we have learned better than any questionnaire.
The [Music Theory Classes]](/clases/teoria-musical) They work very well in virtual format, because teacher can share on-screen scores, play examples and give you real-time exercises.
Frequently asked questions
Do knowing music theory make you a better musician?
It doesn't give you understanding and tools but sound, rhythm and expression are built by playing. Ideally, theory and practice move forward and feed with each other.
How long does it take to learn music theory?
Depending on how far you get. The reading bases, scales and chords are established with a few months of constant study and advanced harmony and hearing training are a year's learning. The important thing is to apply every topic as you study them.
What's more important, theory or ear?
They require each other. The ear tells you what's going on. The theory helps you name and remember and use it on purpose. A good study of theory always includes hearing training and if you care about that side, read about [absolute and relative ear and ear]](/blog/oido-absoluto-y-oido-relativo).