At school, music is often a subject viewed contemptuously by students. It is a subject that, across the board, students consider to be useless, boring, and a waste of time. ‘What benefit could studying music ever do me?’ they say. However, as you get older, providing you are a fan of music (or potentially a musician), you will likely grow more and more interested in music theory, and will likely want to understand the components of a song and how it is all put together. If this is the case, then you have come to the right page.
In this article, as our title and introductory paragraph suggest, we are going to tell you seven good reasons why you should learn the theory behind music. This article will be authored with musicians in mind, for I cannot see the benefit of writing an article on why a person who is not interested in pursuing a career in music should learn musical theory. Learning musical theory is very important as a musician, as if you do not learn it, you will be unable to communicate with professional musicians or composers.
Here are seven good reasons why you should learn music theory.
1. Understanding Music
Learning music theory, quite simply, will enable a student of music to understand how music works. Learning music theory will also, according to the musical experts from HelloMusicTheory.com, help you to trump every single music exam that you have to do. Music is quite complex, despite what you may initially think. Understanding the theory behind it will help you to understand what musical symbols are, why specific notes are chosen, and how to read sheet music. Music theory will answer all of these questions and more. To become a musician, you must understand scales, keys, and intervals, which are things a course in musical theory will teach you. It is even more important to learn musical theory if you intend on joining or forming your band. By understanding musical theory, you will be able to involve yourself in all types of musical groups, from rock bands to orchestras. Understanding written music is very important and it can only be achieved by studying music theory.
2. Performances
To perform and write music accurately and professionally, you need to attend musical theory classes. Musical theory will help you to play your music and write it much more professionally – you will be unable to truly immerse yourself and understand what you are doing without a comprehensive understanding of music theory. If you intend on becoming a songwriter or performer, you will need musical theory. Having a strong understanding of music theory will help you to become a writer and a performer. Performers and musicians like Beethoven and Mozart would not have gotten where they did if it were not for their understanding of music theory, and the same goes for more contemporary bands like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and performers like Terry Reid.
Watching other artists do their magic can be a great way to absorb new techniques and deepen your appreciation for musical composition. You can find some fun videos to get started on your journey to becoming a more skilled musician, whether you’re interested in learning to read sheet music or mastering chord progressions. Engaging with these resources allows you to see theory in action, making it easier to apply concepts to your own playing or songwriting. With consistent practice and a solid foundation in theory, you’ll be able to compose and perform with greater confidence and creativity.
3. Independence
If you do not have a strong understanding and comprehension of musical theory, you will constantly rely on the tutelage of others – you will be unable to perform independently and work as a free agent. As soon as you understand music theory, however, you will be able to go through music on your own without any help, and then you will be able to compose and write your music. Along with an understanding of musical theory comes confidence. The more you know, the more confident that you will be. It is important that you want to have a future in music, that you must have an understanding of music theory. Without an understanding of musical theory, you will spend the rest of your musical career relying on others, which will not endear you to them; it will do quite the opposite. You must study, study, and study so that you have an understanding of musical theory and so that you can stand on your own two feet without the help of anybody else.
4. Reasoning
While not necessarily exclusive to music theory, learning music theory can improve a person’s critical reasoning skills. Students of music theory are often able to improve their critical reasoning massively, and they can adapt this to improve their progress on their course. Not only will you improve your critical reasoning, but you will improve your desired skills, such as time management, and organization. Additionally, music theory class discussions can improve the way that you communicate and help you to learn in different ways. Learning music theory is much like learning a new language, which has many benefits associated with it. It is important that, for this reason, you take music theory classes, especially if you intend on becoming a musician because these skills will benefit you massively.
5. Foundation
Learning music theory will become a foundation for your future, assuming of course that you intend on becoming a musician. The reason for this is quite simple. As you learn about music theory, you will learn about a number of different instruments and the way that you can use them. These instruments will, over time, become highly useful to you. You will be able to pick up any instrument and use it, which can be of great benefit to your music and will help you to become a diverse and well-rounded musician. Music theory will help you to improve as a musician and will serve as a foundation for your future – building blocks as it were.
You will learn virtually everything that you could ever need to know about music, and this will be highly beneficial to you. Virtually every area of music will be taught in a music theory course, which will mean that in the future you are knowledgeable about more or less every single subject. Should you decide halfway through your career that you want to play the piano exclusively, you will have the knowledge to do so, or at least, the foundations of becoming a pianist. Equally, should you decide to pick up a guitar, you will be able to do so and will be able to play confidently.
6. Creativity
To become a creative musician, you will need a class in music theory. While anyone can be creative, your creativity will be limited by your inexperience and the fact that you are not knowledgeable in all areas of music. By embarking on a course in music theory, however, you will have the knowledge to back up your creativity and will be able to adapt to virtually any ability to apply your music theory knowledge. This will benefit your creativity hugely and will mean you can do virtually anything as far as music production is concerned.
An example of this, similarly to our previous point, is that let’s say halfway through your career you decide that you no longer want to play the guitar, and instead, you want to play the piano. While you may not be a very good pianist, your course in musical theory will have taught you to read and play sheet music, which means you can create and write your piano-based songs. With the foundational knowledge of music theory, you will be able to write your sheet music and be creative.
If you wish to become a career musician, you will need creativity. You cannot be creative though if you do not have the technical knowledge to back up and support your creativity, as we have already demonstrated. I think that if you want to become a musician and are naturally creative, you will also need the technical knowledge gained from a music theory class.
7. Versatility
Like we have already mentioned twice now (the last two points), by learning music theory, you will be a versatile musician. Versatility is very important in the musical trade, for you may have to travel around and adapt yourself to different jobs. Not everybody that is a musician will become a world-famous millionaire artist, and instead, many musicians travel and earn their living through live performances in small venues, or by teaching music. By possessing the knowledge that you will learn through a music theory class, you will be able to adapt to whatever situation, and you will be able to make money through a number of different ways. You can teach one instrument and play another. This will benefit you hugely in the future, so I recommend learning musical theory for this reason alone.
Versatility is very important when you are a musician, as we have already shown. If you intend on making it as a career musician, then you will need to be adaptive and versatile, I assure you. While it may sound repetitive, I am just trying to stress to you the importance of learning music theory. It is something that will benefit you in more ways than could ever be described. If you want to become a musician, you should have a passion for music, and musical theory is such a large component, that it cannot and should not be missed or avoided.
In this article, we hope to have told you about seven different benefits of learning music theory. We hope that you will enjoy this page and that you will have found it beneficial and informative. Thank you for reading and please return and join us again soon!
