Forum
  Classifieds
  News
  Localband
  Shows
  Show Pics
  Polls

  OT Threads
  Other News
  Movies
  VideoGames
  Videos
  TV
  Sports
  Gear
  /r/
  Food

  New Thread
  New Poll

E-mail

New site? Maybe some day.

Username:

SPAM Filter: re-type this

(values are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E, or F)

Message:

UBB enabled. HTML disabled Spam Filtering enabledIcons: (click image to insert) Show All - pop

b i u add: url image video(?)

:	post by ShadowSD at 2009-11-25 12:58:11

aril said	[orig][quote]
how about who cares about terimnology and just do it all by ear?

I prefer playing by ear to reading sheet music by a million to one, and will always feel that way. I hate sightreading, as playing by ear always has more potential by inherant design.

At the same time, combining a really good ear with an intellectual understanding of theory (not terminology or notation - that's ridiculously overrrated - but the concepts of what notes tend to go together) can make a person virtually infallible in real time - able to improvise anything at any given moment with anything and just about always be right.

What it really comes down to is that all theory really does is eliminate the notes you don't want, giving your ear a statisically higher percentage probability of finding the note on the guitar you're hearing in your head. So it's absolutely true that it can't tell you what to do, it can just eliminate more of the incorrect possibilities and give you a higher chance of success; the only propeller of forward motion, the only engine of creation is reliant on the human ear. We forge our own paths as guitar players based on what we hear; theory is only a map that shows us where the landmines are, not which direction to go.

So, I agree with the spirit of what you're saying, if not the letter of it.

The one principle I stress above all when I teach is that music theory is simply "what sounds good and why". Anything beyond that is useless blather that academics repeat to make themselves sound smart, and a waste of fucking time.

For instance, if you're not dealing with sheet music, flats are a pointless redundancy and a waste of time. So are modes - COMPLETE REDUNDANCY. There's a surprising amount of bullshit one can filter out when it comes to music theory. If it has no practical application, it's useless.

[default homepage]

[print][

1:49:52pm May 20,2024
load time 0.00769 secs/10 queries]

[search]

[refresh page]