Music theory is dead.

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Edited by Trey Xavier and @rikardtholen9719

[punkfloyd]

Hey Trey, I will have to decide between the Beato Book or your course. I cannot afford both. What makes your product better?

[treyxaviermusic]

Do you know any music theory? Where did you learn it from?

[gorf]

Honestly, I like how you sell your stuff by giving us an actual video explaining why instead of starting something and saying "I'LL SHOW YOU THE REST IN MY ONLINE COURSE" . Kudos to you for that.. seriously ..

[odude]

Your painting analogy hits home. You're right. In painting, you have color theory. Some colors are vibrant next to each other, and some colors will get grey out or be ''muddy''. Neither is good or bad by itself. Sometimes you need more vibrance, and sometimes you need mud .

I spent a long time not learning art theory and being unable to troubleshoot my art. It's incredibly frustrating. Once you learn that your picture looks like shit because you have, say, too much contrast outside of your focal point. You can fix it and avoid it in the future.

The fundamentals just give you the tools to achieve the effect that you envision and locate the issues that impede it.

[JETGuitars]

I couldn't even begin to tell how much theory, even minimalistically, has helped me. Every time there's a sound I like, I can figure out the intervals, and then play it anywhere on the fretboard, and know what notes and chords are in the scale. Plus then, I can learn what note or notes was altered in that scale that made me like that sound. It helps me adapt what I already know much more easily into something new sounding, while only actually being slightly different from what I already knew. Such an easy way to make things flashy. It's much easier than people make it out to be, and sounds daunting, but odds are, you already know a decent amount about it, you just didn't know it.

[SorooshMhs]

Great video Trey. The thing about music theory is it’s a set of rules that you can do whatever you want with. I forget who this quote is from, but the most valuable thing you can do with music theory is “understanding the rules first, so you can break them when you want to”

[denniskielton]

I'm literally saving this on my "For Students" playlist haha. & I teach guitar, bass, & production for "the biggest music store in the world" so hopefully it makes a good impression on some people (I've already referred students to your songwriting videos on a few occasions, and it usually helps!) It drives me insane when people says they don't need theory, or they write from feel. NO. MATTER. WHAT. you are playing, you ARE using music theory. Knowing the names of what you're doing and being able to describe it, and more importantly RECREATE it on a whim because you understand it, can not possibly hurt you. I think people are scared because they hear about people learning scales and getting "stuck in the pentatonic box" but every time I see a student stuck there, it is BECAUSE they don't understand what they're doing, they're just repeating the notes without knowing the theory. As soon as I explain how it all connects and you see the light bulb light up in their head they usually realize they already know so much, they just need to know the names and how it works. Do you need theory to just play and parrot other artists? No, but if you ever want to write anything of your own, you're already using theory whether you know it or not. I used to think I just got lucky, after trying out a million chord combinations, until I realized every single one of those lucky combos is a well known chord progression (one time it was literally a iiº-V-i hahaha, I was like man this sounds good, I need to use this one. Just happens to be the MOST popular jazz progression) the fork thing is a great example. If you don't know what's already out there you're severely slowing yourself down, you're pretty much saying you want to go through all the hundreds of years of musical discovery yourself instead of learn what's already been done so you can expand upon it. Recipe for disaster

[larswillsen]

Trey, I watched this video while eating cup noodles .. your effects are hilarious, you're a genius man - had a great laugh when you go to the "learning the kids something" .. :D

[PewciSlayer]

It's more metal to know the rules and break them on purpose than not knowing the rules but end up sounding like everyone else.

[erikhedin]

This and absolutely this! I'm turning 48 this year and didn't start learning the names of sounds until quite recently, and it has changed my whole perception of music only for the better. I used to be an adamant person but I'm slowly getting the hang of it, bit by bit. And it is exciting! Very much like learning any language! Once you come to a level where you can express yourself AND understand what others mean, it is just pure bliss. Trust me, I have tons of use for this new found knowledge even though I play old school Black Metal out in the swedish woods.

[ReinoRankaisija]

I'm a guitarist that started in metal. Been doing music for 20 years. I have no idea whatsoever about music theory and I think purposefully avoiding it for all this time is one of the dumbest choices of my life. I've tried to study it as an adult multiple times but I just don't have the patience with all the other responsibilities. I decided to give it another shot anyways. Gonna give it a go, I just want to have a musical vocabulary I can tap into when I need it.

[Johnkiernanmusic]

Also: “ if you’re writing god tier music without music theory, good for you.“

The other side of that: if you’re somebody that isn’t, you can then understand what’s going on in that god tier music and work your way from there to your own god tier music.

[Carepackage]

Literally the most useful thing for me was the VERY FIRST EPISODE of Treys Theory Corner. Hearing the words "Music Theory is just a common language for musicians to speak and understand each other." That for me has made it much easier and makes me super eager to keep learning. I crave more wrinkles on my brain

[AndreaBoccarusso]

Almost every student of mine is a metalhead. Luckily no one protested to learn music theory when the time came because they trusted me. They know I would never teach stuff that would restrain them in any way, and this video fits perfectly to the concept. Beautiful video, beautiful perspective

[travisspaulding]

Just about every virtuoso I've heard talk about music theory never really referred to it as a set of rules, but they just called it a language. They weren't saying that they were learning rules; they were learning a language. I think that is a great way to look at it. Theory isn't telling you what works or doesn't work, it just tells you why it works, or doesn't work, but even then, you can make it work. It's like when a rapper will alter the pronunciation of a word to make it work, or the use of idioms, similes, metaphors to say one thing, but mean something different. Theory is a language, and while you don't need to know a language to communicate, it does make it a hell of a lot easier.

[CycleHumcast]

Yeah right, let me know when it’s “music fact”

[tophertaylor]

Trey over here holding the flashlight in the dimly lit world of music theory. 👍

[jomesias]

Trey, what about chord progressions?
There’s a bunch of tried and proven cadences like I IV V ( 1 4 5 ), for example.
The writing of songs always revolves around making chord progressions to stick the solos to!! So armed with those template chord progressions and the knowledge of the dominant and sub dominant properties of each scale degree that’s definitely a power house to take your song writing to completely different level!! For example, the root is the most “stable” it’s home it’s the most resolved tone I of all the scale degrees. Then of course the dominants 3 and 5 which are what you expect, the basic chords are made of the 3 and 5 of the chord tone. I learned all this stuff from some Berkeley books I bought online 👌👌 happy rocking brothers !!

[akivas]

This video is probably one of the most important videos I needed with regards to music theory. It's been so difficult learning music theory on my own, and now it will hopefully be a lot easier to approach. Thanks Trey for producing such amazing content!

[GarthNGuitars]

I’m honestly happy you explained Music Theory isn’t a set of rules. People seem to forget it’s called Music Theory, not Music Truth