A timely post from NI for you :https://blog.native-instruments.com/getting-started-with-music-theory/
Looks good, thanks.
Its a little known fact that tchaikovsky used a sequencer to compose…It was called the “orchestrion”…it was sequenced by punching holes in long sheets of paper…He could play piano as well though. I’m not really feeling his songs though to be honest.
I agree on tchaikovsky maybe being the most prominent & well known; yet there are sure lots of others & better russian composers:
Music theory is just a tool, and one of many we as musicians have at our disposal. Should you learn music theory? Yeah I think you should if you are a serious musician working within the confines of western music. But will it solve all of your musical problems? Hell no. What it can do is give you a valuable tool set which can aid you in analysis, composition and communication. I can tell you that band practices are a hell of a lot easier if the people involved understand the language of harmony. I don’t have to consistently play a riff for 45 minutes till my fellow performers diligently transcribe my lines note for note. Instead I can simply say, this phrase has a swing feel and revolves around a ii V I in G Major where the V is a D7b9. Something along those lines, you get the idea. I can also open any Beethoven string quartet and begin to break it apart, figure out the nuts and bolts of the piece, and see how it all works, not unlike an engineer studying a schematic. I can do the same with any electronic piece. I can transcribe the piece, put it into a useful road map, and possibly perform it later in a fast way by presenting it to musicians with the same understanding. Since we have that same understanding we can discuss it and rip it apart, find new ways to reharmonize it. You don’t NEED music theory but it is a part of western music tradition and an invaluable tool that the world has helped shape and build over hundreds of years.
Another thing to consider. Music theory, in terms of the paper side of things is very valuable, but there’s also the practical side of music theory that can’t be emphasized enough. This includes, ear training, so, melodic, harmonic and rhythmic dication, hearing intervals and recognizing them, chord recognition, hearing scales and knowing them inside and out, plus rhythm study, conducting, sight singing and a whole host of other skills that will do SO much for you as a musician. All of these skills build off each other and are a part of becoming a well rounded musician. Different musical traditions have their own ways of doing these things, or emphasize different skills, but they still their own traditions that if you’re serious about understanding, it would really benefit you to learn.
In the grand scheme of things, music theory isn’t so much a set of strict rules as it is a set of observations and names for those things we’ve observed.
I like the descriptions of chords by renoise arp commands:
a ‘C-037’ chord
a ‘G-047’ chord
an ‘A-036’ chord
Excellent starter lectures on music theory:
Start with music theory for producers:
U cannot make #short posts, like simple & short & on point…like this: I V vi IV 
https://laughingsquid.com/four-chord-arrangement-that-makes-pop-songs-catchy/
Just 2 #short Questions:
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So you can #humm chords, or am I missing something?..rest makes totally sense & similar technic used to find the root-note of samples.
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What if me humming, as beautiful, as it might be…is not tuned in 440 Hz, like the Instrument me tapping the key on…microtuning?
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Lets talk About the #hollow earth theory…
Man this is sum illuminati next level MK Ultra shizzle…me will hummm whole symphonies in my Mind…with chords all over the place, like an OST!
Of course you can hum chords, but I should clarify what I mean by “hum”. I’m not talking about actually making a noise, I mean hum it in your head. You’re humming chords every time you have your currently favourite tune stuck in your head and hum it to yourself. You must be able to mentally hum chords cause the song will contain chords. You can mentally hum a complete production in your head, nevermind just chords! You automatically know when you’re hearing a chord or a single key, so there should be no difficulty in translating that to actual key presses (unless, like I said, a person is tone-deaf).
Another thing I noticed even when I were a kid playing on an old upright piano we had, is that no matter what key you hit, you are guaranteed that any chord containing that key will work with that key, so another way to develop a melody and chord sequence is to find chords first and then find a melodic match by hitting any melody key, at a higher octave than the chord, that contains one of the keys of the chord. Of course you don’t have to use the same keys, and eventually you sort of drift out of doing that naturally, but doing it sort of fleshes-out the composition to a point where you can start getting more fancy, and realising that these things work harmonically, is what allows you to develop your own understanding of the piano keyboard.
Microtuning is irrelevant, you can hum any pitch in your head anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvceKeHl0Sg <<< Best Music Theory Tutorial ever & Best Disney Cartoon of All TiME!
Or had…long time before us & we are now continuing the journey; one of my All Time favourite Musicians:
So you can #humm chords
Skip to around 6m into the video 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SJIgTLe0hc&t=6m
(Or just listen to the whole thing… it’s a great performance!)
Wowzerzz!..stunning performance! tnx
We might All Be a BiT crazy & leaving proof of this #undeletable on the i - net…dont fall for the illusion of normality, bruv 
@El°HYM, Nice, and he prove’s I ain’t crazy as well, I like him
@dblue, Dat lady clearly gots polyphonic vocal cords :o
Mongolian throat singers can sing three simultaneous notes ( chords ).
Mongolian throat singers can sing three simultaneous notes ( chords ).
Well, I’m still of the personal opinion that music theory is not required, and I also believe it puts you at a disadvantage.
As long as you can hum and hit a key, and are not tone deaf, you don’t need music theory IMHO.Try this:
- Make up a tune in your head, anything, now hum it over a few times.
- Work a single finger up the keyboard until the key you hit is the same as the key you are humming.
- Do the same for every key in the melody.
- Do the same to find every key of a chord, one finger of the chord at at time, while your completed melody plays.
Duh, simple as that!
PROS:
- You had no need to learn music theory
- Your melody and chord changes are were not shaped by music theory cause you don’t understand music theory
- Your melody and chord changes were developed through your own personal theory, you are truly self-taught
- The more you do it, the faster you’ll do it, and the faster you do it, the better you’ll get at it
CONS:
- None
Look man, I can’t convince you to learn music theory. But I guess I would just say, that your descriptions of it are really misinformed and your resistance isn’t much different than someone who knows little of philosophy and science but doesn’t want to learn it in fear of what it may do to their own internal ideology. I would strongly encourage you to open your mind and learn it. It will only help. If you hate it you can reject it but at least you’ll know why you’re rejecting it.
Look man, I can’t convince you to learn music theory. But I guess I would just say, that your descriptions of it are really misinformed and your resistance isn’t nomuch different than someone who knows little of philosophy and science but doesn’t want to learn it in fear of what it may do to their own internal ideology. I would strongly encourage you to open your mind and learn it. It will only help. If you hate it you can reject it but at least you’ll know why you’re rejecting it.
I disagree, what he has described is what ALL musicians do end of the day. It’s called honing your inner voice. Taking melodic dictation from the one and only unique instrument in the world, your human voice. It also strengthens your inner melodic construction to external instrument coordination. ALL jazz musicians do this in their live and practise routines. That is how they come up with inspired lines rather than copy pasted or over-analytical-lines. I do it daily myself!
However I also agree that while this being an essential and high priority music skill to practise and implement and look up to, it also helps to facilitate the process faster and easier by studying a little of this jargon and labelling schemes that we call music theory. Like you are humming a note and you found the key that matches, then next step is simple, just find the ‘name’ of the note. That is it! From there you can write down the names of the notes. Later in try to distinguish the intervals between the melody notes, say for ‘Amazing Grace’ the first two notes are a Fourth apart. So label every such interval based on a popular song. Soon that also will be internalised. Then your melodic dictation will be faster. After that do simple diatonic chords major minor dim and aug. Sing them by constructing major and minor 3rds. After that try to sing with a chord progression the monophonic melody line. And so on…the process never ends and you will end up doing music analysis and theory for the rest of your lives. If interval naming is something you can hone, Jazz and Classical and Pop or Rock will open its doors to well facilitated understanding. It’s THE most important skills of all musical skills, second to rhythm.
One really essential tip to improve musicianship, is to do transcriptions. Do it from records, sheet music , riffs you like, songs you like and try to write them down later in parts, not entire tracks unless someone is paying you or you really like it.
Also another very important rule: All musicians must make it a topic of discipline to engage in music every single day. Whether you do finger scale practice or theory reading or composition, it must be regimented and mentally effected by willpower and routine hand to hand. Make it your first habit and only really bad habit to do music practise and analysis every single day.
Edit:
The thing is one can never truly realise his potential and materialize its benefits without diligent practise, EVERY single musician of repute or critical acclaim or academic prowess has given his dues by breaking his or her back over the instrument and honing skills on it. It’s almost like a mandatory skill on its own. Without discipline whatever talent you have will never develop fully to fruition. Discipline itself requires discipline, becos it don’t come easy, totally worth bekng obsessed over it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SJIgTLe0hc&t=6m
Skip to around 6m into the video
Stinky face all the way…stuff I listen to every single day Amazing vocalist.
That mongolian overtone singer is great .
I once saw some tuva singers …stunning performance
The mongolian throat singers get three tones with :
- Normal singing tone.
- ‘Throat-rattle’ ( adds a low note ).
- ‘Tongue-whistling’ ( adds a high note ).
Maybe this woman is not as good as the mongolian throat singers who can do three tones, but her explanation of technique is clear.
>>>>> The Mongolian Dude, always wins! Always.