How I'd Learn Music Theory (If I Had To Start Over)

If I could start again, a million miles away...

I've spent over a decade of my life learning music theory, and it hasn't always gone smoothly, but I've got so much out of that journey. But what if I could start over? Was there a better way? Knowing what I know now, how would I advise the old 2009 Cory on how to do things better? Or, perhaps more relevantly, how would I advise people who, in 2021, are just starting their own journeys into music theory? I'm not entirely sure, but hopefully this list will help.

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Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold and Sofia Sangiorgio for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections:

1) I should note that I do have some experience with external pitched instruments, specifically bass and piano, so if I'd gone the "learn an instrument" route, the takeaway would've been practice those more, not learn them at all.

2) On the suggestion to listen to music from other cultures, I'd add that while that should include traditional practices, it shouldn't _only_ include traditional practices. Many of these cultures are still alive and well, and checking out modern popular styles from around the world can be an eye-opening experience.

[zapptuff]

This video couldn't have come out at a better time for me. I'm disabled and despite a strong love for music, I've never been able to play any due to my chronic joint pain and weakness. Fortunately this summer I will have some time to try my hand at using a DAW and attempt some production. However, I am starting entirely from scratch with no clue what I am doing. This video provides some great starting points and though it's daunting, I can't wait to try my best at this. Thank you!!

[DC_Prox]

A little piece of trivia revealed by orchestral listening: the opening theme of Avengers: Endgame is the same as the opening theme of Infinity War, but with only half of the instruments.

[furious]

Drawing zubat for “they’re everywhere” and yes, yes they are

[isabelleliu]

1. 0:38 Analyzing songs
2. 2:32 Transcribing songs you analyze
3. 4:08 Read journal articles/other forms of scholarship
4. 8:05 Learn about music production
5. 9:19 Listen to a lot more music - go out of your comfort zone

[emmbeesea]

I'm very, _very_ grateful that my musical beginnings are in piano, despite my dislike for most of my lessons. Reading two different staves helped me instinctively learn how two different voices (hands) work in tandem and set me off for learning so much more, not just about theory, but also how a whole bunch of instruments play. All these years later, I'm now learning the basics of production and I wouldn't be anywhere near the musician I am without the piano because it inherently teaches you a lot.

Keep on rockin'!

[taxevasioniskool]

i’ve been a violinist for nine years but my music theory knowledge is basically nonexistent beyond what i use every day so this is UNBELIEVABLY helpful

[leaveitorsinkit]

Mixing/Mastering has been huge for me. It’s one thing to have a good song, it’s another to have it SOUND good.

[aliquidcow]

I am very glad that I had guitar lessons, unlike a lot of people I've met who are self-taught. My teacher's approach was pretty much this - we'd learn a song that would generally be something at least in the zone of what I like, then we'd look at what was going on theory-wise in it. So you started with the 'fun' part of being able to play something cool, then used something you actually liked and were familiar with to learn the 'academic' stuff. Plus he taught a lot about active listening and really encouraged me to work songs out by ear, which has been a massive help. It's why I've never understood the thing you hear people say about how 'learning theory will make my music bland', because I've always just seen it as something that's just as much a part of learning music as learning to play the instrument.

[the-engneer]

You explained this so well! I have been giving guitar lessons for year's, and I learned the hard way if you start by saying "Okay you must learn a G chord, a D chord etc.
You always bore that person and scare them away", instead say " What kind of music do you like? We are going to learn a simple song in that genre of music or a song you know and like", and once you teach someone one song they tend to want to learn another! I taught one kid to play 2 songs, and now he is almost a better guitarist then me

[georgebrown]

As far as things I wish I had done studying music theory, you hit most of them. But here are some things I did while studying music theory that weren't part of the official music theory courses that provided some extra insights:

1. Writing music that deliberately sought to break the rules you were taught. A big problem with how music theory is presented is that the rules are presented as simple cases of right vs. wrong. But really it's that the rules are guides to how to present a certain kind of sound. By deliberately trying to write music full of perfect fifths, or with a whole bunch of dissonant intervals, you can both get a good appreciation for what the actual purpose of those rules is, and for when it's justified to break them.

2. Reading about the history of the various composers we would study. The Ben Shapiro school likes to present some form of purely objective music detached from its social context. Learning about how the Odhecaton brought printed music to a wider audience in the 16th century, or about Wagner's anti-Semitic attacks on Mendelssohn, or about Janáček composing his "Sonata from the Street" in response to police violence, you get a better feel for the significance of the music than you would just from a pure music theory analysis.

3. Learning the mathematics of sound. On the other end of things, I was a math/music double major, so I also got exposed to the actual mathematics of harmonic analysis. When you learn about Fourier series, it's not typically presented as being about music. But it helps understand why the overtone series exists. And what accounts for differences in timbre (music theory classes usually don't talk about timbre).

[dedenunes]

Still trying to understand 12tone's obsession about elephants

[dimitri]

I'm (re)learning music theory at 45, and it has opened a view upon myself I always thought I did not posses; understanding music.
A very strange feeling, like driving a car for years and only recently learning traffic rules for the fist time and they immediately make sense because you have known how to drive for so long without knowing why.

It has helped me to understand instruments, because someone gifted me a guitar (which I did not know how to play properly #dontjustlearntabs), and I remember vividly how much I sucked at playing the only instrument I was allowed to play by my parents: the electric organ..

Music theory is like 'drivers ed(ucation)', learning the rules of a complex system and understanding why these rules make sense..

[drybrusheverything]

I'm a musician of 19 years, 7 of those i would say were "professional" and I've always had a good theoretical knowledge. Learning music throughout school helped me with the foundational concepts but i was never much of an instrument player. I would say its only in the last 10 years that I've really started mastering my main instrument and i remember the moment that everything i had learned prior (which was almost everything theoretical) just started unravelling itself over the fretboard and it all just made sense in 1 day, after a VERY long time of not making sense. It was almost like these 2 separate worlds aligned all of a sudden.
I suggest implementing everything you learn in theory class on your main instrument because having your practical knowledge and theory knowledge at the same level is the most rewarding thing I've experienced with music.

[lema]

I'm a producer and theory is so fun and helping but sometimes I distance myself from my knowledge because I sometimes I like to experiment and my knowledge at times works like a wall

[AxemanMessiah]

In summary: learn theory but take it easy. Learn your favorite songs and analyze how they came up with them. Listen to multiple genres to how they work.

[RoselynTate]

The pre-rigorous, rigorous, and post-rigorous phases apply to SO MUCH about music education. In my experience, most branches of music education at the college level focus so much on bringing students through the rigorous phase that students don’t really learn to step past it until after they’re out of school for a while — which, at least for performers, is how you move from being a student to a professional. Yet many young artist are basically pigeonholed into staying in the rigorous phase — because school is supposedly about learning to be better — when in the arts that’s often counterintuitive because how are you supposed to find your own voice as an artist without moving beyond what your teachers say is right or wrong?

[deviationblue]

Blessed be 12tone in the almighty algorithm.

[m.davidallen]

I've been learning a lot of theory but don't necessarily know how to direct efforts within the huge territory. It's like you said in the video, there are so many branches and sub-branches. I think sometimes that rather than doing music theory just for pure interest, it's good to "have work", and to need to perform some task, to focus the learning and force the mind to learn the branches necessary to do the task, rather than just sample the entire space endlessly.

[radiobe]

I've been into music production for a while, and it have done wonders for my general knowledge of music. One thing that I think is pretty cool is that you're basically forced to transcribe, if you're working with samples. And you want to be! Samples force you to take musical ideas that are out of your comfort zone.

Another thing is: you get a knack of how instruments combine, pretty much because you can't have a single loop playing over and over again, cause that would be boring. So you want to add variation. And this makes you think about types of sounds ("I want a rising thingy to open this measure here!", "Oh a pad would be nice here to make the music thick for the chorus!"). And about breaking repetition by means of pitch and rhythm. And about establishing familiarity before breaking it, etc.

The mix proccess makes you consider frequency range, and I think this is so good for developing orchestral hearing. Also, how frequency correlates with "forward into your face", musically, in a way.

The craziest thing, for me, was that I intuitively developed, over the course of time, the capacity for so many things. Like, basses. I can "see" basslines, I can audiate way more. It's like, you're initially blind, touching your way around, but things eventually start to make sense, kind of like muscles grow, if you play enough with your musicality.