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My approach to learning music theory. What do you think?
I understand the rhythm/notes part of theory since I learned drumming formally (I can read music).
But I know nothing about scales and chords. So I tried a few times to sit down and read music theory books/apps and it's all overwhelming. Then I decided to do this:
Learn and play A minor and nothing else for a month (just the sale; no chords). Every app I play, every synth I play, every sequence I create, every arp I play has been in A minor for the past month. I've created a lot of loops with different rhythms and feels and sounds with just that scale. Instead of worrying about cramming my brain with chords and other scales and intervals and who knows what, I've been enjoying making music in one scale (and it feels like music on a feel/emotional level because I'm comfortable with the scale).
Now at this rate, I'll learn all the natural minor scales when I'm 80 but my hunch is that things will speed up a lot after this experimenting time with one scale.
I would take a similar approach if I taught someone drumming. I'd say don't worry about learning all the rudiments. Learn a basic drum beat and do nothing more for a month than see all the different ways you can play it: fast, slow, switching the snare and bass drum, moving the hi-hat hand to the floor tom, accenting one note and then a different note, etc.
I just feel that approach is so much more musical for the beginning. And then after they start to "get it," I throw the rudiments at them.
Or maybe I'm just lazy. All I know is that I have explored the heck out of the scale and created more loops than I would have if I was trying to learn a gazillion scales and chords and concepts.
Comments
I agree with starting slow because it can be overwhelming. How ever scales are made up of intervals of semi tones and tones. Once you know the combination it remains the same throughout the various keys. Get a book on theory and you won’t spend 80 years learning all the natural minor scales.
But don’t let theory get in the way of creativity. It can help and give you new tricks like transposition but it can hinder because at times rules are meant to be broke.
Not sure how playing an A minor scale translates to "learning music theory". Tell us what your goal is and perhaps we can make a good suggestion to help reach it.
I think it’s an interesting approach, seems to blend your inclinations and background well. I didn’t have any background, so I started by tracing the historical roots of scalar systems. I tend to do this for most fields, while Weaving in diversion. I was studying Francis Burney a few years back, her dad was Charles, who in the late 1790’s wrote the then seminal history of music. He also gave 50 music lessons a week, hung out with the greasy actors. She wrote a play, The Witlings, which is full of sound, like Joyce’s Ulysses, in Telemachus, the newsroom with the whirl of papers, the storm. So then from Greek-to-Greek. Derrida has this piece, Tympanum, he traces the etymology of the ear-worm, along with the tympan of the printing press, and the impression on ontology they make. I find the scalar systems arbitrary, with the Greeks anyway bonded to city characteristics. I really appreciate the concept of holistic tonality, that ‘all music is timbre.’ But so too are confines effective to rein in sprawl, categorize into the authentic analogue, the greenest gold
Well, I didn't even understand the purpose of a scale at the beginning. I'm like, "Ok, 8 notes, so what?" Then playing around a bit I start to understand how everything within the scale sounds "musical." And I start to appreciate the very idea of a scale. And because I see how it is easier (to me) to create musical things with those eight notes, it actually has motivated me to want to learn more scales.
Now contrast that with me sitting with a music theory book (as well as two apps I tried) with my eyes glazing over as I feel like I'm being bombarded with too many confusing concepts at once are really hard to memorize.
I think now that I "get" the purpose and usefulness of a scale from having played A minor for a month, it will motivate me and make things easier for the rest of the scales. I won't be one of the many people rolling their eyes at having to learn scales.
I just feel it helped me get past the first hurdle where maybe many others quit.
I like this aproach. Ive been after a piano for a while and now I have a cheepo 61 key it's time for me to get back into teading/playing/scales. My motivation is to understand the choices other people have made. Ive read that A minor is heavily used so it seems a good place to start. To help me can someone explain a simple cord progression in in A minor.
The other think I like is little riffs to get from one chord/note to another. Ive heard you can tell a pianist from a guitarist from the choices made here but I still dont have any. Where can I get some? For example get from Am to C with a few choice notes in between?
This might seem a bit dumb but I promise you Im reading the dummies giide to music atm
Ok so take this pattern W, H, W, W, H, W, W and play it in b, c, etc. Any key.
Whole tone
Half time one
You now know how to play natural minor. To me it’s easier to follow a road map instead of becoming a cartographer but to each his own.
You only have to actually memorize scales if you play an actual instrument. If you go the digital route, there is easy live transposing of keys, and special keyboard surfaces that are scale locked, and MIDI techniques to change what you play live on a MIDI keyboard to conform to whatever scale you want.
If you are going the digital route, you are pretty much freed from all the memorizing, and are free to play it by ear. By that I mean just try different scales out and listen for the ones that grab you for whatever reason. You already have the bit about playing all your parts in the scale you choose down it seems. So now start exploring other scales with some of the awesome scale-related apps that are out there. I suggest ThumbJam.
And if you are interested in doing more mainstream stuff try looking at Hooktheory.
https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab
Here are a few simple chord progressions that will get you from Am to C:
Am G C
Am B7 C
Am Dm G7 C
Am G F C
Am Bm C
Am F C
many more....
…but not as Golders Green.
Darn autocorrect, I meant Golden Grahams
Theory is good to know, also some excellent pieces of music just use one note.
When creating sound or thinking about music don't forget the question tv therapists often ask "how does that make you feel?"
This is awesome! Thanks for the tip!
I think it’s a trap because you’re just playing white keys. It’s a feel good trap, though.
Your welcome!
Here's a couple more I like. The first one is good if you have some basic knowledge. The second one goes a little fast, but is quite interesting to me.
Revolution Harmony
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDKiHSPstsj0silp519gt6w
12tone
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTUtqcDkzw7bisadh6AOx5w
But the white keys alone give you Major, minor, and the 7 natural modes. That seems like plenty to start off with.
@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr Im on those progressions, thank you.
@ipadthai here is my advice (lifted from the dummies guide to music theory that Im reading), why not try as a next step, the blues scale. Its just so cool how you just play these notes with a bass patch and it really does sound like your playing the blues. Just walk up and down the scale, its that easy. This to me explains a lot, a scale guides/helps you sound a certain way.