Originally Posted by
allenhopkins
Haven't studied "music theory" since junior high, but have picked up enough through 50+ years of playing, to give me some insights that are useful to someone who's basically a by-ear musician. Learning how chords are made, how a minor scale differs from a major scale, what chord patterns are common in the music we play -- things like that are helpful. I learn, as you do, mostly by assimilating tunes and songs through watching and listening to others play them. Nothing wrong with that.
A lot of "theory" is pretty simple. You say you don't understand what having an instrument tuned in fifths means. Well, you tune your mandolin GDAE, right? Start with the lowest note, the open 4th string G. Count up: G=1, A=2, B=3, C=4, D=5. The third string is tuned a fifth above the fourth string, D above G. Similarly with the other strings. Compare your guitar, starting again with the lowest note, the open 6th string E: E=1, F=2. G=3, A=4. The fifth string is tuned a fourth above the sixth string, A above E.
You already know, instinctively, the common 1-4-5 chord progression: you play in the key of C, no sharps or flats, and the chords are often C, F, and G (or G7). So, C=1, D=2, E=3. F=4. G=5. You have the "one chord," "four chord," and "five chord."
What I'm getting at, is that by playing music you've assimilated a fair amount of music theory, whether you recognize it as such. And there's no truth, IMHO, to the contention that learning theory somehow keeps you from improvising or "making up tunes and things." Classically trained players are used to working from printed standard musical notation, and many are more comfortable playing that way, but that has nothing to do with learning or not learning principles of music theory.
Knowledge is almost never your enemy. You may not need to organize your experience and acquired knowledge into formal "theory," but that doesn't mean you don't recognize the concepts, or apply them when you play. There's sort of a "reverse snobbishness" that by-ear folkie musicians can have: "I don't know that stuff, and if I took the trouble to learn it -- which I won't -- it would interfere with my playing." I've found the modest level of "theory" I've picked up over the years, has generally been useful rather than detrimental. YMMV, of course.
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