Is knowing music theory really necessary for those who just want to play songs they hear?

Question

I'm kinda new to music theory.

I am always told that to play songs on, for example, a piano I should:

• know which key is responsible for which note.
• adapt my ears to notes, so that I know which note I should play to produce the right sound in a piece of music.

And I am always told that knowing music theory is necessary for those who want to:

• read music from a sheet.
• be a composer.

I know it's better to know music theory for those who just want to play songs they hear on, for example, radio. My question is that is it necessary here?

Answer 1

tldr; there is a commensurate level of theoretical knowledge that will help immensely with what you want to do. It may not be much theory, but if you know it, you'll be much better off (unless you're a musical genius, as Michael Curtis points out).

When someone with extensive theory knowledge listens to a song, they might think, e.g., "Oh, that's a I-vi-IV-V progression in G." Thanks to their theoretical knowledge, they've recognized the pattern more quickly, they've expended less mental effort, and they'll remember that song for a longer time.

You can probably already see how theory helps. When you play by ear, you're decoding sounds into notes. Theory provides structures and frameworks for conceptualizing both of those things (the sounds and the notes). Theory identifies patterns in music. It's like the teacher standing over your shoulder saying "look at the chords you just played--it's the same sequence as the song you learned two weeks ago." When you spend time thinking about those patterns, learning them, and naming them, you will be faster at identifying them and better at remembering them. Knowing those patterns is essentially a "shortcut" that reduces the required mental effort.

In essence, when you learn a song off the radio instead of reading sheet music, you're transcribing. The less intensive your transcription work, the less theory you'll require. If your desired task is to play melodies and chords, then you don't need to go buy 10 books on theory. Focus on diatonic chord progressions and the major/minor scales, and that will probably be enough.

On the other hand (to use a more extreme example), if you want to transcribe exact chords/notes on a solo jazz piano track, then you'll want to know a wide range of theoretical voicings (upper structure triads, combination triads, quartal voicings, stacked thirds, drop-2, shell voicings, type A/B voicings, etc. etc. etc.).

Theory is nothing more than a collection of statements describing patterns in the music. Knowing those patterns helps. But you only need to study the patterns you care about.

Answer 2

Necessary? No.

Helpful? Yes.

You can compare it to just about any other endeavor. The more you know about the concepts and terminology of any given field, the more effective you will be in the study.

Being illiterate in any topic is not a benefit.

Some like to cherry pick examples of the supposedly unstudied geniuses, like Einstein failed math, Bill Gates dropped out of college, and the Beatles couldn't read music, as justification for avoiding any study. The problem with that is: extraordinary examples don't make the norm, those examples are often untrue, those examples overlook the people gained the same studied knowledge through non-traditional paths, and copying one characteristic will not give you the whole package. Not learning to read music will not make you as good a musician as The Beatles.

Is knowing music theory really necessary for those who just want to play songs they hear?

Most likely it will be helpful. Don't use the word "necessary" to load the question. Of course it isn't necessary. There is no question of requirement. The question is whether it is beneficial.

Someone may have a talent for playing by ear and have honed their skill at it through practice. They will know things about how music works... and probably give their own idiosyncratic names to things. Their skill is a combination of ear training and pattern recognition via a personal path.

If that doesn't "just happen for you" then the traditional course of ear training and theory study will help you. It will help you, because it will teach you to hear musical patterns and understand their practical application.

Answer 3

Yes, you are allowed to play piano without any knowledge of notation or any other 'theory'. There have been some very accomplished players who were completely untutored.

They learned, by trial-and-error, what notes made what sounds. They began to recognise patterns, so that what they'd worked out for one song could make it quicker to work out the next one. They were developing a concept of 'theory'.

It can be a heck of a lot easier to read a book than to wait until someone else decides to recite that story and try to remember it. Same with music. 'Really necessary'? No.

Answer 4

Clearly you can do whatever you want to do. You could try to learn a bunch of theory all at once, which wouldn't be very much fun for you. But if you buckle down and study hard it won't be long and you'll start to see things make more sense for you. You would be working on very simple music, which might frustrate you. Are you that patient? If you are, this method pays big dividends down the road.

Or, you could just keep on doing what you're doing if it is enjoyable. Music was never meant to be a chore. The day may come when you discover something that you really, really WANT to understand. Then, you can dig in and learn that thing you really want to know and theory will be just as enjoyable as playing.

My advice, find a private teacher you like. Tell him/her where you're coming from and let then teach you piano and they'll naturally weave in theory as you go.

Answer 5

Why do people think western music tradition requires you to learn music theory if it is not necessary? Do people think musicians enjoy exercises in futility? It is taught because it improves every part of your musicianship. Why do people have such a hard time believing this? Do these people also go to Harvard and question why the chemistry department requires you to learn theory and practice or why you cannot graduate a maths degree by doing algebra and not trigonometry?

People think that a great teacher and hard work leads to great musical ability. This is certainly a big part of it but the part that is not discussed nearly often enough is the crucial part that an early, quality music theory education plays in producing musicians of the highest order.

In closing this question is analogous to asking can a blind person find the entrance to your house if he gets to your house? Given enough time and effort, yes. An easier solution would be for the blind person just to be able to see the entrance of your house.

Can you figure out V - I is a good way to end a passage, sure. That is how this piece of knowledge was accrued originally all those centuries ago. It would be easier for someone just to tell you that give you a couple of examples. Show you it is the case and you to go on your merry way.

Answer 6

A decent percentage of people will just be unable to "play by ear". (Possibly they are deaf, or tone deaf, or just bad at it like me.) For those people, reading some kind of widely available written notation is the most practical way of learning new music, usually sheet music or possibly guitar tablature. But you only need mechanical knowledge of the notation for that--this shape in this position means play this note for this long, this word means play louder, this symbol means play the same section over again, etc.

The alternative for us tonally challenged folks would be some kind of verbal/visual training, but even in these times just learning to read sheet music is a lot easier than trying to find a tutorial for every song you want to play. (Not to mention faster and more convenient.)

Answer 7

Most of the time I listen to music I'm consciously hearing the scale degrees 1-7 (I-VII) along with some non-scale tones. I play by ear on alto recorder. I hear the piece and where it lies on the scale, then i play it in one of the two keys I'm best at and that give the best range and comfortable playing. I almost never play things in the original key, but rely on knowing where in the scale its happening. A short section of music by itself can qualify as two different keys; playing major scale you may end up in minor for a little bit (in question). Knowing these overlaps can save you headaches as a by-ear player. In minor and major, notes 4-5-6 in one key is 1-2-3 in another key. I always stumble on this.

+1 jdjazz answer!

Music theory and composing: We could go off about this but its not what you asked :D

Answer 8

Everyone is pretty much free to reinvent the wheel.

That said, a lot of basic "wheels" in the music theory are rather easy to reinvent. I know because I did.

Other things are pretty much easier to read somewhere.

Q: "Do I need to be an engineer in order to hang a picture on the wall" ?

A: "Not really. But it helps a great deal."