title says it all …
my 2 ct … I know the pentatonic, I know the minor, I know the major (no transpositions whatsoever).
Fuck chords, really, like who came up with that … but I sometimes look them progressions up… often sounds really nice!
music theory is a tool. Sometimes it helps to know the rules before you go bending them or breaking them.
vision is more important than theory
I use Ears - Hart - Balls - and the little leds above the keyboard ! 
calm down, everything that sounds nice fits into a theory which only explains why it sounds so nice 
Check this
if you got troubles constructing chords. The book will show you how to play, not why to play…
Greetz to Berlin
DP
[quote=““invisible acropolis””]
this is pretty handy if you are into that shit
[/quote]
tried a million of these… my fingers just cant compute the location on the keyboard, no matter how hard I try… I keep having to look shit up… so annoying
tried a million of these… my fingers just cant compute the location on the keyboard, no matter how hard I try… I keep having to look shit up… so annoying[/quote]
Buy a Push.
BTW, Don’t worry about your lack of music theory knowledge. Most of the old great Jazz/Blues musicians didn’t know the difference between Ionian or Aeolion modes. Yet, they made great music.
I must admit that taking some piano lessons really really helped me.
And I do not plan on being a live keyboard player in a band, but at least it’s helping me understand how to optimise the use of the 12 keyboard keys on the A4 or where to go next in case I want to use a chord…
Can’t tell if you’re asking for help or declaring it out of pride.
Music Theory is to a musician as learning to read is to a story teller.
A storyteller doesn’t need to know how to read, she can pick up new stories along the way and create her own from scratch. But knowing how to read makes it a lot easier and gives her access to influences outside of her community and experience.
Music theory is a large topic but you don’t need to master it all. A dedicated blues musician needs a smaller set of musical theory than a jazz musician. A jazz musician needs a smaller subset than an orchestral composer.
This is all generalization but the point is that every musician can always learn a bit more music theory at any time without any worry that they need to learn it all to be useful.
Learning music theory should be fun and inspirational. For example if you know the C scale then you also know how to play in the following modes:
[ul]
[li]C Ionian[/li]
[li]D Dorian[/li]
[li]E Phrygian[/li]
[li]F Lydian[/li]
[li]G Mixolydian[/li]
[li]A Aeolian[/li]
[li]B Locrian[/li]
[/ul]
Don’t get scared by those fancy names. Just try playing the C scale over a D or E minor chord progression. You learn that the A minor scale is the same notes as the C scale. Play the C scale over a G7 chord.
All this is stuff you may have found out by accident on your own by dinking around. By knowing what the name is you can communicate your ideas more efficiently.
Music theory is not for the elite, its for every musician. Like music itself it isn’t a goal but a journey. Learn as much as you need in your life right now. Learn a little more later when you’re feeling uninspired or want to grow.
2 Likes
for many electronic music chords and harmonies are not that important. sometimes it is even useful not
to know too much about this stuff. but that doesn´t mean you should not care about tuning and harmonies
at all. listening is the most important thing in music and also in music theory in my opinion.
the statement that most old great Jazz/Blues musicians didn´t know anything about music theory
is only the half truth. most of them have been fantastic ear players and did know much more about
theory most people might think. any jazz musician knows that.
i had gigs and jam sessions with a ot of different musicians and it´s really no fun at all to play with
someone who doesn´t recognize even simple harmonics goin on… on the other side those guys feel
great playing with good musicians, but thats only because more experienced players always react to
their playing.
in electronic music there are common “mistakes”
many people can´t tune their instruments (thats very tricky sometimes with analog gear)
a completley wrong tuned kick can kill really good tracks…when you can hear that.
very often chord changes sound boring as hell
on the other side wrong notes can make a track much more interesting,
because they give a track a certain atmosphere. but often they sound just wrong.
so it´s all about listening. with or without theory.
theory actually can make things much easier. in the first place the communication with other musicians.
furthermore you can discover things you never would have expected.
my personal method the last years has been: learn theory a lot. use it. forget it. do that again and again.
after some time you recognize more and more theory in many music you hear anywhere.
so you can manifest that theory by just listening to music.
the goal is to be able to play anything you think of. that´s where the fun begins.
especially on jam sessions.
to get a good ear player you don´t need necessarily theory but it helps more than it hurts.
there is this idiot, a total loser with the obligatory ableton blog, who says that NOT having music theory knowledge is a big plus in creating music.
That of course is just like to say that the total lack in knowledge of English literature is a big help at traveling
Well, I just wanted to share this LOL with you
Sounds like he’s playing in Assholian mode!
tried a million of these… my fingers just cant compute the location on the keyboard, no matter how hard I try… I keep having to look shit up… so annoying[/quote]
yeh i dont use it as a text book or anything, but its cool to look at some of the modes and so forth… it will show you a scale and how it transposes
for example if you are looking to make a “japanese” sounding melody, you can use it as a reference or whatever
sometimes its just interesting to see what a particular scale is and how it sounds when you use it… there are tons in that book
i like the anecdote
i like the anecdote
[/quote]
I wish it was just an urban legend…
Learn theory. Play an instrument. There’s already enough beet makers.
I find it much easier to think it terms of intervals than the notes in a scale.
So if your playing in C Major, C is 1 and D is 2 and so on. If you would like G to be the root note of the scale (tonic) than G would be 1 and A would be 2 and so on. This way you can simply count up the keys on the keyboard to find out the other notes in the scale.
Major is 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11
Minor is 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10
Dorian is 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10
Mixoldyian 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10
There are others but those are IMO probably the most useful for electronic music, with a special nod to Dorian and Mixolydian modes and they have more space around the tonic (1) and the 5th (7) which are used alot. They avoid the really ugly sounding 1 semitone interval around the tonic or the 5th that both the major and minor scales have.
3 Likes
tried a million of these… my fingers just cant compute the location on the keyboard, no matter how hard I try… I keep having to look shit up… so annoying[/quote]
Buy a Push.
BTW, Don’t worry about your lack of music theory knowledge. Most of the old great Jazz/Blues musicians didn’t know the difference between Ionian or Aeolion modes. Yet, they made great music.[/quote]
if push would work without a pc … thanks though
mkay … feel very unviosionary in general I must say… I just love hammering shit into the sequencer and then turn knobs like a monkey!
ture that! … we germans always thrive for more efficiency … everytime I try piano classes I am like after 20min : I have reached my maximum potential, just like when I started at age 10