Category: Musings

My personal thoughts about music theory

Reality and Taste

To me, there are two aspects to music theory: objective reality and taste.

Objective reality is the physical interaction between notes: universal truths independent of genre and culture. An octave is universal, as is the concept of a mode, of bars and beats and of strong and weak notes. Apart from ambient or abstract music, all styles of music are built on on these concepts.

Taste exists on two levels; community/cultural taste and personal taste.

Cultural taste is the prevailing taste of a particular era, region or school. Cultural taste defines genres and styles of music.

Personal taste allows a player to put their own stamp on a performance, whether interpreting an existing work or creating their own.

I believe that true understanding begins with a strong foundation in objective reality before studying a specific genre. This foundation makes it easier to understand how the characteristics of a particular genre are achieved.

If you understand the concept of modes, you can easily identify and learn a mode used in a particular era or culture. If you understand bars and beats, you can learn the time signature and characteristic rhythms of a particular musical style.

What Is Music Theory, Anyway?

To me, music theory is the study of how music behaves. Every note, rest or chord has an effect: a consequence. What that effect is largely depends on the musical context.

When listening to a piece we can hear how the notes and chords link together within the context of the key, time signature and tempo, predominant rhythms, phrasing etc. This is how we perceive music.

If we can understand how different combinations of notes produce these various effects we develop an insight into the composer’s mind and a deeper appreciation of what the composer intended. For creative players and composers, music theory provides the tools to determine which combinations of notes will provide the effect they want to portray.