Is learning music theory worth it?

Most people can't do that stuff so to make themselves feel better they either put you on a pedestal and call you a god or call you a nerd - I get both and I'm proud of either label - I did the nerd 2.0 test (google it) towards the end of 2010 and came out as a god-king of the nerds with a rank of 99%

and thanks for the compliments folks......
 
Being a nerd or even studying theory making you a nerd is out of the question. That is utter foolishness.
People claim such a thing while their idol producers for the most part have a very solid foundation of knowledge in theory.
Hey, I'm not saying you have to do it, but even if you are a predominantly sample-based composer, theory definatley comes in handy. You may wonder why Kanye's beats sound so hot. Sure the chops are there but his co-producers add so many things to it (based on theoretical knowledge) and it adds so much fire to the record so that you cannot recreate that complexity if you do a remake of his records.

This song right here in my opinion was the most impressive track on Kingdom Come - the beat behind this was created by Dr. Dre who claimed to be studying theory to create this track. And you guys tell me theory is for nerds..

 
MyComglomerate said:
Being a nerd or even studying theory making you a nerd is out of the question. That is utter foolishness.
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The nerd thing was a bit of play - I will take the label of nerd any day if that makes someone else feel better about their inability to study and learn, I preach theory to the choir and the unbelievers alike, I occasionally win a convert.

Unless you have severe negative connotations associated with the word nerd (relentless bullying because you wee smarter than someone else) it is actually a term of respect, though most jocks don't see it that way. My school friends were proud to have a nerd in their corner when they needed one to help with some part of school they didn't understand; in fact I had few enemies as everyone knew it was dangerous to mess with me because of who some of my friends were.......
 
bandcoach said:
The nerd thing was a bit of play - I will take the label of nerd any day if that makes someone else feel better about their inability to study and learn, I preach theory to the choir and the unbelievers alike, I occasionally win a convert.

Unless you have severe negative connotations associated with the word nerd (relentless bullying because you wee smarter than someone else) it is actually a term of respect, though most jocks don't see it that way. My school friends were proud to have a nerd in their corner when they needed one to help with some part of school they didn't understand; in fact I had few enemies as everyone knew it was dangerous to mess with me because of who some of my friends were.......
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Yeah I feel you man basically all I wanted to say was that studying theory should be completely beneficial to anyone looking to further their talents in music production and at the end of the day, I don't want people negatively putting anyone down for learning further branches of musical education to make success happen in their music. I'm not huge on theory myself but I would definately like to learn some to add some depth to my music.
 
Learning music theory is very helpful. I've found it helpful in my compositions whether they are hip hop, r&b, pop, or whatever else I may do. Try taking the time to learn all of the major scales. That alone is a big plus. I guarantee you won't regret spending the time.
 
exactly. Most people think that they can read a bit here and there and stop at the minor and major chords, and they know 'music theory'. It's like saying that knowing how to count from 1 to 11 makes you a scientist.

The problem with music theory is: it's not instant gratification, it's a long term goal. Real results will be clearly seen AFTER one knows and can use, really, really solidly, all the basics. Like other people said: if you define yourself a musician, it makes sense to know all you can about music.
 
While learning muic theory, not only you can (after some time) easily derive accompainment/arrangement patterns, but it also opens up your imagination and you start to imagine things you couldn't think of otherwise. If someone was living all his life in a cellar, how could he imagine trees/sky/sun? The more you know, the more you can imagine out of it.
 
DMTian said:
If someone was living all his life in a cellar, how could he imagine trees/sky/sun? The more you know, the more you can imagine out of it.
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This is an interesting but false analogy.

A person in a cellar with a piano could conjure up any piece of music simply by using their ears. They may never even consider concepts like chords and have no need for naming conventions. In fact, they could well have no language centres in the brain at all. The idea that spoken language is required for thought has been known to be false for quite some time. Music theorists don't read much neuroscience. Theres plenty of experimental and a priori evidence for that.

Meanwhile a person an a room with a million books on music theory will never be able to comprehend what C major sounds like and therefor have made no progress towards conceptualising the process of intentionally creating sounds.

One counter argument is that the person with the piano will actually generate their own music theory. Well maybe, maybe not. Thats unfalsifiable and therefor an irrelevant assertion. It's equivalent to arguing that music theory is unavoidable, so moots discussion of whether it can or should be avoided. And if there are better or worse music theories, then there's no reason to think the music theory the person creates for themselves is the optimum one. They almost definitely won't generate a music theory like established music theory.

Another counter to say that by learning that some sound is called C major, although it doesnt make it possible to use C major, makes it more efficient... well I see no evidence for that. It might just as easy cause you to not be creative. Many will point to the greats (or at least will point to selected greats ignoring the majority of the reality of musicians) but this proves nothing other than being great and learning music theory happen to coincide (in a biased sample). Being a slave and being black happened to coincide for a long time too.. what d'you conclude from that?

Until I see some actual evidence I have no reason to believe that learning a descriptive framework is useful for anything other than descriptive tasks. For which it is very useful, though I think its also quite bloated.
 
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in my opinion and experience, it has been totally worth it! my music sounds more cohesive now and i learned a lot about melodies by learning music theory...
 
ashhole said:
in my opinion and experience, it has been totally worth it! my music sounds more cohesive now and i learned a lot about melodies by learning music theory...
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I'm learning jazz and its been very beneficial to me in terms of building my musical foundation and expressing alot of the ideas I had in my head but didn't know how to manifest as sound. Its to the point where I can hear music and recognize certain things like, "that is a major 7 chord" or "that is a minor 3rd". Nowhere near the level of someone like BC yet, but making and listening to music feels so much more engaging now, for me at least.
 
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