What good is music theory?

Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, John Mayer…

When you hear these names, you think of good music. I mean intricately composed, loaded with depth and complexities, and endless replay factor. What you don’t think of, is music theory.

So when we begin to explain theoretical concepts to our students, some music-loving parents doubt whether this stuff actually matters. Shouldn’t we just teach our kids how to play really, really well?

Well, yes we should. But there’s more to it than that.

Every musician needs a basic understanding of music theory. Period.

There are just some things that we have to teach. Basic theory (keys, scales, accidentals, rhythm, etc.) must be taught not only for the understanding of the child, but so they can communicate with other musicians. Music theory allows us to grasp the big picture of what we play, and allows us to tell other people what exactly we are playing.

For instance, chord names. A student needs to know what a G major chord in the open position is, and they need to be able to associate the shape with the name, as opposed to calling “that chord”- something we hear quite often.

There is a point when it becomes excessive.

Once the theory exceeds the playing capabilities of the student, there is no point to learning more. A student’s theoretical knowledge and their playing ability must coincide with each other, otherwise the theory becomes head knowledge and is never applied during practice.

Kids have to make the association between theory and playing. “Oh! X sounds good because of Y!” is exactly what we’re looking for when we introduce theory in lessons.

So then what is advanced theory for?

Advanced players, duh.

Not really. Advanced players might use advanced theory concepts, but for the most part, advanced theory should be used to reverse-engineer songs or parts of songs that you like, to find out exactly what you like, and to apply them to a new song!

We don’t do this explanation justice, but John Mayer does in his interview with Guitar Center. He does a very quick breakdown of “Gravity” and explains exactly what we want to do with our theory instruction. Here’s the video.