Learn Music Theory!

Here's a funny meme I found on the internet.

When I began to play, I was drawn to tablature, not using a metronome, not learning the bare essentials to become a good guitar player. It was fun for awhile. But then when I started to write, it was almost too hard for me. I didn't know what do do, or where to start! It was agony. I wish I got into music theory the moment I began playing my first instrument. 

To make it easier for you to write songs, even more than you may already think, learning music theory allows you to do that, and here are a couple reasons why!

1. Music theory helps you learn the rules of songwriting.

Learning scales, modes, progressions, notation, all sorts of things helps you learn the rules of songwriting. How are you going to write a good chord progression if you don't even know what chords are in the key you want to write in? How do you know what key you're going to write your guitar licks in if you don't know what a key is? Learning the basics gives you an important foundation on where to start. Sure, you can write songs without music theory, but learning music theory will only give more and more says Berklee graduate Tyler Larson. And even with rules, with music theory: you can learn how to break the rules in the right way.

Here's a fake quote from the Dalai Lama.

2. You can communicate with other musicians easily.

Without music theory, it's hard for any musician to communicate easily. As a guitarist when talking to a piano player, it's hard to say "first fret on the fourth string" without confusion. It's a vital tool in order for other musicians to express their ideas. It provides a written language for everyone to understand, according to Jennifer Paterson.

Being able to read this and communicate the ideas of the Roman numeral analysis properly will allow you to become a better musician.

3. You can improve critical reasoning skills.

Music theory classes makes you process large sums of information in very little time, writes David Werfelmann. Processing that amount of information requires critical reasoning as to why some parts of the information are more important than others, which leads to the improvement of critical reasoning skills.

Imagine becoming this smart due to music theory!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you come next time!