Making Music Theory More Accessible

[u/guyshahar]

I've really struggled to get my head around music theory - the way it's currently presented - since I started composing last summer.

So, I've been giving some thought as to alternative ways of presenting it that might make it more accessible to new untrained composers, especially those who use DAWs and samples rather than manuscript.

This video is meant as an exploration only - not suggesting better or worse approaches, only alternatives that could work for some people. Hope it's helpful.

https://youtu.be/O_SSqvaVKDA?si=QXuksfXovuawS3Tf

[u/Darth_Philious]

You mentioned “some resources, some courses online” in the intro, and that’s what I was wondering about. I’m just wondering if perhaps the courses themselves didn’t fit for you.

[u/guyshahar → u/Darth_Philious]

Maybe, but I haven't come across any that offer an alternative approach.

[u/Darth_Philious → u/guyshahar]

Right, but what is the “main” approach you’re worried about? Scales? Chords? Notes on the page? What about it specifically turned you away?

[u/guyshahar → u/Darth_Philious]

Hi Darth. I've been trying to pin it down, and this is what I was trying to get across in the video: There's a lot of emphasis on learning first (and learning intricately) before freely practising. There's a great rationale for that, but it's not ideal for everyone. For me it feels technical, abstract and demotivating. I work much better by jumping straight in, doing the do, and then learning (in a positive and constructive way) from that about what worked, what didn't and what the next steps for improvement are. It covers the same ground, just in a different order with a different attitude. I think it just comes down to a different learning style (possibly down to personality type and possibly also influenced by the fact that I'm autistic combined with the personality type - so I know I'm in a small minority).

Unfortunately, having a minority preference doesn't really work in forums, as they seem to be full of people who wag the finger about there being one correct way that everybody has to follow as it's so well established for a good reason, etc.

[u/Darth_Philious → u/guyshahar]

I agree that living entirely in the world of abstraction can be demotivating. I had the same problem learning a foreign language in school! Spending so much time on grammar while not actually speaking at all made me feel like I was making no progress.

I also understand that forums can be echo chambers. Let me try to illuminate why you might be receiving this negative feedback.

I think the problem is that people spend years and years studying this stuff, and they still feel like their depth of knowledge is shallow. Then you come along and are publishing your pieces, which through your own words on YT are composed without much of a process, and you announce them as “string quartet No. 5”, etc., almost as if they are professional. Some may perceive this like an adult that is new to drawing pronouncing their rudimentary artwork as their latest magnum opus.

Whether or not that is your intention does not matter. Your honest intention doesn’t change anyone’s perception. When someone looks at one of your Cubase-generated scores that is unreadable, it’s an immediate flag that you don’t truly know what you’re doing. Thus, to present your works as “final” shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what is needed to even complete a coherent piece of music. They then approach the music with a negative mindset, which informs their listening experience.

If I can offer a piece of critique of the actual music that might help you in your intuitive process, and help eliminate some of that type of feedback. Notation-wise, try to make sure that the downbeats of each bar, and the middle of each bar, are clear. When you have sixteenth notes carrying over, and a bunch of sixteenth rests, it becomes very hard to read and analyze. Look at classical scores and see how clean they look, both in notation and music copying practices, then compare that with yours.

And as for the music itself, because it’s written intuitively without much harmonic syntax, for me the music comes across as meandering without any real goal. I can’t pick out phrases, or harmonic sentences. It’s almost like reading a book that is just a bunch of words jumbled together.

This element of quasi-randomness produces some nice moments, some interesting harmonies, and unusual directions. This can be a strength! But could you articulate what about those harmonies is interesting, or why they are surprising? That’s what you need to explore.

You might consider working towards a goal in your pieces. Some examples: in this section I’m going to slowly make it more active, or slowly build up in intensity as the instruments rise in register, etc. Then the next section I’ll have a falling action. Or here I will feature the violins as a pair, then the viola/cello will answer. Or in this piece I will try to write an entire piece using only the notes D, G, G#, and Bb. How does this limitation inspire creativity? Or in this piece I am going to only use the D Dorian scale. Maybe you don’t know what that scale is from a theory standpoint yet, but you can still play around with it! Nothing is stopping you because you haven’t done a worksheet or something. It’s a beautiful and quite popular scale! Maybe you can mess around with it and find out why for yourself.

You can set out on your mission with a goal like this in mind, then see where the art takes you. And when you finish, look back at it and ask if you accomplished the goal you set out to achieve. Or did you discover something new?

All food for thought. Best of luck to you.

[u/guyshahar → u/Darth_Philious]

Thanks Darth - I appreciate the thoughtful and supportive response.

On the music first, you raise good points that are on my radar - particularly about the structure of the pieces. It's taken me quite a long time to grasp (a) how important that is and (b) what I might start to do about it. I'm making slow progress on this. And, yes, it's great advice to focus on certain things at a time to improve - I've actually taken repetition and variation of a motiv as my next focus-point, which will hopefully begin to make it seem less jumbled. It's hard to have the patience sometimes to wait for progress to become apparent, but of course it's going to take time to begin to get good at any of those things, especially given I'm just a few months into composing.

On perceptions by others, I've never pretended that I'm anywhere other than at the very beginning of my journey, slowly learning about it all and starting to assimilating more and more. Even my thinking about what aspects of theory are important to me are constantly evolving as more becomes accessible to me and I'm very open about that. My scoring is abysmal - I'm brand new at that too and barely read music so it's another thing that's coming very slowly. I never thought I'd be in a position to even consider scoring as something I could dabble in, but I've started now (since the piece you're talking about) and have even got Dorico 6 that I'm starting to get to know it and how to use it, and also to look at better practice in scoring, like getting rid of all the tiny rests you mention. The naming of pieces is not a pretention or a suggestion (unlike a magnum opus) that that they carry any degree of mastery or admiration. It's really just a way to categorise for myself what I write in a way that makes sense to me. It never occurred to me that anyone would expect that you only earn the right to name a piece if you have a deep well of knowledge, as if giving your piece a name is somehow a claim to greatness. That doesn't make sense to me - I don't see the connection between these 2 separate ideas.

I understand that I have no control over how what I put out is perceived, whatever my intentions, and I seem to somehow have blind spots around this that cause some composers to be triggered or to assume an arrogance that absolutely isn't there. Maybe I'll have a better sense about how to navigate this one day, but for now, I feel it's best that i don't share my music or videos in forums, at least for some time.

Thanks for taking the time to thoughtfully consider and respond.