Here's my logic, I'd like to see what you think. Everyone uses grammar in their life, whether it be important business reports or little e-mails. However, not everyone uses music theory. I agree that it's important to the minority of people who have a career that has to do with music or something like that. Besides that, in my opinion, the average person doesn't need to know much about sight reading, falsettos, or treble clefs.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Sure you may not use it, but to us musicians, it helps us ALOT!

by Anonymous 14 years ago

that's what he's saying, only musicians need it.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yep. And I'm surprised that everyone is getting kinda worked up over it. It's an opinion.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Says the guy who got worked up by it.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

This is so true.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

the original comment was regarding musicians anyway, so yes i agree with you. music theory to musicians is definately as important as grammer to language.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yeah, just listen to Slipknot, they suck, and they don't use music theory. Even rappers have figured out what a minor key signature is. (But not much else.)

by Anonymous 14 years ago

A thousand times yes.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Grammar is much more useful for most people. It can help them communicate and show other people that they are educated. Music theory is not useful for non-musicians. Sometimes it can even detract from the mysterious aspect of cool sounding chords or progressions. Someone that isn't trained in music theory might hear a chord and just hear emotions, whereas someone that knows music theory might hear a maj13(#11) and be too focused on the theory of it. I don't think that all performers necessarily need music theory either. Drummers can do fine by just "feeling it." Singers and songwriters can just sing melodies and they probably won't be thinking what solfege syllable they're on, but they'll still choose "right" notes. A lot of guitarists and bassists can get by on tabs if they want to stick with covers. You can have an entire band that may not know music theory, but they can entertain a group of people by playing with emotion and musicality and going beyond the theory aspect of music.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Also, theory was not used to make music; it was used to explain music. Bach didn't have a guidebook when he wrote his music. The music theory explaining Bach's music came later. If we always stuck to music theory, we would always hear the same boring sounds. People that break the "rules of music theory" are the ones that advance music. Musicians that care about having a career that requires music theory will always be willing to learn it, and those that just want to play in a band for fun will do just that. If people want to learn theory, no one is stopping them. On the other hand, I totally get how it can be difficult to communicate with someone that doesn't know theory. One time I went to sit in with a band, and they had nothing written down. They expected me to learn a dozen of their original songs by ear. While that's certainly doable, if they knew how to write music, it would have been a lot easier for me and any other people that they want to play with.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I am about to get my performers ARCT in piano this summer and haven't even done preliminary level of theory yet. Unless you want to become a composer or care THAT much about getting a dinky little certificate, music theory is completely useless.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Of course, because I, wanting to be a brain surgeon, will require to know about four part chorale writing and the twelve-tone technique before I will save people's lives.

by Anonymous 14 years ago