Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
For better or worse we make 'em up as we go w/o a whit of music theory -- not denigrating theory just pointing out we have none. For Janice when it comes to our progressions and melodies it's either "musical" (as she says) or not. Just another way of saying that if it pleases your ear then go for it. smile

Bud


You know it, have it, and use music theory whether you realize it or not. Many folks like yourselves have learned how to write songs and play an instrument without taking any sort of classical theory class..... but that doesn't mean you haven't learned or understood the theory even though you may not know the technical words or the "rules of the road".

John Lee Hooker knew that in the key of G.... he could use C and D to play a song....he might not have understood why but he just knew it worked. He may not have every taken a music theory class to learn the WHY of that thing that he just naturally did every time he picked up his guitar.

It's how I started playing.....jamming along with songs on the radio.... but then later, I ended up taking music lessons. My teacher of piano taught me the relationships that exist in chords, how inversions change the color of the chord and why, and so much more about music in general and why they exist and how they are used to best effect. Later in school, I took 2 years of dedicated music theory in a very small class. there was a total of 5 kids in that class including me and all of us were involved deeply in music of one sort or another. Now days, I don't set down to write and say to myself, now.... what did Miss Shaw say about the tonic chord with a flatted 7th..... nope. If it fits, it works in that instance. I've forgotten most of that formal stuff with the years but it's still the foundation I work from.

So while you may not be formally educated in music theory, you still use it when you write.


Last edited by Guitarhacker; 08/30/19 04:12 AM.
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