Music Theory/Knowledge...Pointless?

Y

You Foria

Chray
I see sooooo many people on here saying "you need to know music theory to produce" or "go read up on chord progression"...but 3 of the hottest producers out right now, if not THE hottest producers out: JahlilBeats, Lex, and Sizzle dont know any of this stuff I feel like. They dont play keys, they just throw beats together?
Thoughts?
 
You Foria said:
I see sooooo many people on here saying "you need to know music theory to produce" or "go read up on chord progression"...but 3 of the hottest producers out right now, if not THE hottest producers out: JahlilBeats, Lex, and Sizzle dont know any of this stuff I feel like. They dont play keys, they just throw beats together?
Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Who on here said you need to know theory to produce? That sounds like something people make up just to start an argument. Please, feel free to share any posts on here saying in explicit terms that you MUST know music theory to produce.
 
sounds to me like you are simply trying to start an argument that doesn't need to happen. I may well be one of those who you incorrectly claim says that you should learn music theory full-stop. What I do say is that if you want to stop asking questions every minute then learning some music theory will not hurt you, but only make you better equipped to do what you profess to be your profession - produce/create music.
 
It's kinda tricky. No, you don't need to know music theory to a "T" to produce any kind of music, but it helps. It's not pointless in the least to at least know the fundamentals of music, like keys and tonic. Hell, it even helps to know chords. Just try and keep an open mind to music theory, 'cause it's not pointless in the least for any kind of producer. It just helps for more professional sounds.
 
Unless youre making atonal trap bangers, like lex lugar, i would suggest skimming the surface of music theory. Plus when you look at it, do you want to be just a producer or a musician as well? Learning music theory can only help you in the long run for creating songs that have more depth and can fit in a key signature for a vocalist to follow. A lot of rap beats dont need a key signature or tonal quality because most rappers dont sing so it wont effect the song whatsoever.
 
you need to seperate composition from production... most people and the majority around here, do a bit of both. but even so, as somebody above pointed out there are still times when the producer needs to use music theory... tuning etc.

an engineer may perhaps get away with zero knowledge... ? but are you interested in music or are you interested in the associated technology... i wasted years messing around with the technology when what i was really interested in was the music and it wasn't until i concentrated on music theory that i started gettin good results for my efforts and really started to enjoy my own work. for me, the technology just gets in the way... i'm a music lover not a technology lover.

i have no idea who any of those guys you mentioned are, they might be hot in your opinion (and in a genre not known for its musical depth) but what ever line of work you are in you always need to know a bit about the work the people alongside you are doing otherwise they won't want to work with you...

also people often downplay their knowledge or training to make themselves seem more talented and "street".

think about it... you want to do music but want to completely ignore the theory that is associated to the subject... how can that result?
 
The more you learn and teach yourself which notes sound good together and which progression sound right and which one doesn't... that's music theory my friend, you'll be learning music theory whether you like it or not
 
If you wanna master production i suggest you at least learn some...
 
Don't think it's necessarily something you HAVE to know to be successful, but like others said it depends on what you are making.
 
In the next few years they will repeat themselves,doing same old thing.Knowledge is like resource or drawers that you can draw something valuable out and make it into magic
 
Just look at the title; Knowledge...Pointless? I'm not here ta convince anyone, but if you cain't answer that question yourself.... You have uh whole nother problem. Lmao

---------- Post added at 04:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:57 PM ----------

Btw, Southside my nigga.!!!! But I'm still not gon let him convince me ta stop learnin.

---------- Post added at 04:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:00 PM ----------

He said it himself, it's types uh music he cannot make N he put his hat down to them Mfs. Lol
 
What if you wanted to compose.music for movies?Seems like if you did beats this would be a big deal. Beatmakers are the bottom of the barrel whe it comes to pure dynamic music.
 
Well, I'll say it. If you want to produce, you need to know music theory.




But that doesn't mean you have to know the terminology. But you can't tell an artist to sing this note, or that note a semitone higher/lower if you don't know theory. You might just sit there & say, "higher, higher, no back it down a bit"

But that's music theory.

You might have to beat box a rhythm to a bass player, or a drummer, instead of saying "these should be eight-note-triplets!!"

But that's music theory.

If your shit sounds tight.. chances are you know more theory than you know.
 
A lot can be done by ear but knowing even a little music theory goes a long way and it saves time and effort.
 
You Foria said:
I see sooooo many people on here saying "you need to know music theory to produce" or "go read up on chord progression"...but 3 of the hottest producers out right now, if not THE hottest producers out: JahlilBeats, Lex, and Sizzle dont know any of this stuff I feel like. They dont play keys, they just throw beats together?
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
The problem is people don't understand you don't nessesarily have to learn music theory from a book. It can be learned through simply enjoying music, but you're gonna need to know it. I'm often misunderstood and wrongfully bunched in with the wrong groups in these discussions.

My stance is, you need the natural talent to know what sounds right and how to acheive the sound. That is not taught in books, alot of the greatest musicians who founded styles used to this day didn't have a book to go off of. Ray and Stevie couldn't see to read a frikkin book, lol.

But they understood fundamentals and built off of them.

Plenty of great musicians just picked up an instrument and started playing, got better through having the ear to know they weren't where they needed to be yet AND JUST KEPT PLAYING WHILE LISTENING TO INSPIRING MUSIC.

Why do you think there's so many trap(hip hop, not EDM) producers now with no real demand for the finished product? Because the style was easily picked up. So even with the guys you're naming, you're making a point.

Nothing against trap, I love it, but let's be real, who can't sound just like Lex?

Try sounding like majority of top 40 hits without any fundamental knowledge of music and you'll begin to get it.

Again, I just don't feel it needs to be learned from a book or university. I can play "guess why they call it the blues" and don't even know "what key it's in" wouldn't know it if you placed the sheet music in front of me. Someone else will laugh and scoff at how little I know while pointing out the note I was off on that no one else woulda noticed and telling me "it's whatever in blah minor"...but they prolly can't play it. If you can do both, you're really winning. :cheers:
 
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