Who plays music or understands theory?

I played piano for quite a while, but I haven't been learning/playing much for a year now.

I lost interest in theory, mainly because it seemed like a small annoyance more than a useful tool. After a certain point it gets ridiculous for me.


Welcome to PA
-Joel

Several of us play music and/or understand theory.  There's a thread you may want to visit if you're curious to find out who all plays what, etc.:

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3874

I am mostly self-taught when it comes to theory - I know enough to know what key I'm in, find the melodies and chord progressions I hear in my head, have my favorite modes to improvise with, etc...

I'm a high school student but I understand music theory better than most people my age. The thing is I love knowing what things sound like. For example when I hear a whole tone scale run I find it very exciting to hear that unusual choice of notes, not only because it sounds cool but because I know what's going on. I love hearing a few bars and listening to the chord changes and trying to pick them out. I love listening to a song and getting confused by the rhythm, and depending on how unusual the time signature is I get a big thrill out of figuring it out.

I had general music theory for two years (playing recorder) and 9 years of claasical piano training, and I followed some courses afterwards (classical; improvising)

I play piano and synth, and play in a band, and still find some time to compose for a three man outfit (two synth players and drums)

I know a moderate amount of theory. It's very helpful for me because my natural ear is average at best. I've worked on that aspect of my musicianship too, but theory saves my rear in lots of situations. I think knowing the basics of how I ii iii IV V iv iivo I and circle of fifths and basic stuff like that probably should be under the belt of anyone who wants to be a serious musician. There's a lot more out there which I find useful, but not everyone will want to spend their time on.

I play drums, bass, guitar and a tiny bit of keys, self taught except for a couple of guitar lessons six or so years ago. I've recorded some tracks (one I'm working on right now) which are available for download here: http://www.last.fm/music/I+Am+Three+People

Henry Plainview wrote: I play piano (poorly), and I passed Music Theory 101, but I can't hear the different technical things when listening, and I don't know how other people can.

heh

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I play the piano, and study music in all its major fields (except composition).


Edited by Ricochet - December 03 2009 at 11:59

I give guitar lessons and teach the proper dosage of music theory along with it. The problem that I run into quite often is that parents desire more for their child to read and dismiss the hard working process that goes into developing techniques on the instrument.  I played various styles of guitar playing for more than 30 years. Woopy do!   Now I sit at home with the kids and work on Wes Montgomery pieces. My musical ear was fully developed from hearing my uncles play jazz piano around the house. My father played jazz guitar in the 30's and 40's.. When I worked with showbands I would tape the chord charts to the stage floor as I only had 3 days to memorize 65 show tunes. I worked with a guy from New York that was multi talented. He taught me the N.Y. musicians short hand method of writing chord charts and reading them. I had a lot of primitive culture type musical training as well from blues and jazz musicians on the road. I told once that I sounded like a Dennis Sandoli student. Sandoli was an avant-garde composer and a master of guitar in Philadelphia. He would not except me for a student due to the simple fact that I was mostly a wrist kinda guy. At the age of 28 he wanted me to start all over and use the fore-arm. I use the fore-arm a bit when I play John McLaughlin pieces. But for Alan Holdsworth or Wes Montgomery I don't. He saw that as a flaw. So that was a bit of a blow.  

Slartibartfast wrote: I do not believe in the theory of music because it's just a theory after all.  However I do play. I have tried book lessons and even a live instructor before but never got very far.  I love to improvise and found I could do things much more interesting than the lessons.

This is true. It works out in most cases, especially if you have a good ear. It doesn't work if you study classical guitar. Then you have to work the pieces out that have been transcribed for guitar. If you wanted to work something out by Paganini which might be played by Steve Vai on electric guitar, you might have to work a percentage with tab or read the notes. If you have a fully developed natural ear, you can just pick the notes up right from the cd.