Here’s what I’ve learned after all of my theory research of song writing… You can ignore most of it. If it sounds good it is good. For a sec I thought going to the Dom to transition to other keys was the answer. Yes and no. If I’m wrong about any of this please let me know. Thanks again for everything!
If it sounds good, it is good. A cliche but nonetheless true. It will always be true.
Music came long before theory. Also, what’s good and bad is subjective. Theory can’t explain that. Some musicians bend theory to suit (or justify) their needs, I think it’s unnecessary – it just complicates things.
I could go on and I could easily agree with you, in fact I could probably go further and completely trash theory. That however would be just as pointless as somebody manipulating and distorting theory to justify just how “wrong” their music is. In my opinion something like bebop does exactly that. It obliterates music theory to a point of contradicting everything about it that ever made any sense in the first place.
But … all of this isn’t really the point. Understanding basic theory (you don’t need to be an expert) enables us musicians to communicate with each other in a common language. It gives us ideas to work with, allows us to make sense of what we do already know so that we can take that and do something else with it, quickly and easily.
It’s a very difficult thing to explain. It’s one of those things that only make sense once you’ve learnt it. I don’t know of a single musician that has been made worse for learning theory. It can only do one thing – make you a better musician.
The most important thing about theory is to not let it dictate what you do and look at it as a set of rules. It isn’t a rule-book, it’s a guide and a common language for us to use. People that say theory stifles creativity and makes them worse – that really is nothing but a cliche. If somebody learns music theory and as a result becomes a worse musician then it’s really quite simple … they actually Didn’t learn theory!
