"Music Theory." Ugh. Why should you care?

[MikeRobinson]

I daresay that a great many musicians have had "a terrible experience that they will not soon forget" with "music theory classes," whether they were in high school or college or both.  How can we soon forget pig-Latin words like "Aeolian" or "Mixolydian," or, God help us, "Phrygian," or the stupid rhymes like "I Don't Particularly Like My Alcoholic Life" (my personal fave ...) which would help you to remember them in proper order – which you had to do, or fail the next exam. 

 

I don't remember any teacher who ever clearly explained to me why I should give a damn about anything they had been saying, once the damned class was through and I'd added another useless-to-me letter to my academic score-card.  None of them told me why it mattered: it was just, "memorize this, and regurgitate it correctly on demand."  Or so I thought at the time.

 

But there really is a reason why you should pay more attention to "the purely-theoretical aspects of music," no matter what you call them.  Because, as composers as early as JS Bach realized, "there is a theoretical, in fact mathematical, basis to Western music."  And it can help you get out of "musical tight spots."  It can offer you creative options that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.  And, it can show you why some of the songs that you love actually "work."

 

No, this post is not a prelude to Yet Another Music Theory Course.  The Internet is already stuffed with them, so it doesn't need one more.  Instead, I'd just like to point out a few "neat tricks" that you can do on any keyboard instrument, as well as things about the keyboard itself that you might not have really considered before.

 

(If you don't play one, go buy a keyboard ... the cheapest one you can find, yes, but buy one.  All twelve notes of Western music, equally available, and with a few musical insights that aren't nearly so obvious with air-tubes or strings.)

 

"All White Notes, But Not Beginning With 'C'":  Take a song, such as Merrily We Roll Along, and play it using "all white notes."  First, begin on C.  Now, shift your hands two places to the left and play the same song ... all white notes ... beginning with A.  ("As though 'A' were 'C.'")  Suddenly, we're "rolling along" in a minor key!  Now, play the same song beginning with another note.  You have seven to choose from, and every one of them sounds different.  Congratulations: you have just played Merrily We Roll Along in pig-latin:  in seven different modes.

 

White Keys and Black Keys Are Unequally Spaced:  When playing on a keyboard, did you ever notice the black keys?   As you played a melody using "the white keys," did you ever consider what it meant that some of the white keys have a black key in-between them, while others do not? That they are not spaced equally, but occur in a group of two and a group of three?  That the "two-group" is separated from the "three group" by two white keys, but "the two white keys" that occur above the "three group" span an octave?  There's method to that madness, and it's actually what produces "the seven modes."  When you moved from one starting white-key to another, you rotated the sequence of "white notes that do have a black note between them" – whole steps – and "those that do not" – half steps.  And, presto, Merrily sounded completely different, seven times in a row, all because of this.

 

Why Does "The Key of F Major" Have "One Flat," and Why Is It B Flat?:  Think back to what happens when you play a song using "all white notes, beginning with C."  (The "C Major Scale.")  Notice the position of those black keys.  Notice the pattern of "whole steps" and "half steps," which by the way is WWHWWWH.  If you play any song, beginning at any starting position on the scale, such that this particular sequence of whole and half steps is preserved, the song will be "in a major key."  So now, start with F as your first note, and count your way up the scale, maintaining that same sequence of whole and half steps.  You'll quickly find that, in order to do that, B must be B-flat.  And that is why.

 

Okay, What About "F Minor?"  Aww, you guessed it already.  Just as you did with "all white keys starting with A instead of C," simply move your fingers two notes to the left, and play your melody as before – with B flat.  "It sounds minor," and for exactly the same reason as before:  because you rotated the sequence:  WHWWHWW.  (Mumble mumble:  "minor key" = "Aeolian mode" = as Nashville musicians would say, "Mode #6.")

 

"The Nashville Number System":  Because session musicians "don't particularly like their alcoholic life" either – at least not in this context!  They have no use for pig-latin.  Since there are, after all, "seven modes, beginning with major," they simply numbered them: one to seven.  And of course, being the musical gods that they were (and still are), they could effortlessly play anything that you wrote, in any of them.

 

Surprises of "Equal Temperament" and Intervals:  Most folks do not realize that the notes of the scale are not equally spaced.  (Only the players of non-fretted stringed instruments directly encounter this.)  Instead, the sound frequencies are very slightly altered so that you can actually do what we just did:  "start the scale at any point and it sounds the same."  This is so-called equal temperament.  But you might have noticed already that it doesn't sound quite the same.  If you fool around with the keyboard, playing consecutive notes that are "so-many black-or-white keys apart" (an interval ...), you'll quickly realize that they actually sound different.  Every "chord" is, minimally speaking, "two adjacent intervals," but the same (say) "1-Major" chord does not sound the same when it is constructed at different points (there are 12 to choose from ...) on the keyboard.  Try it for yourself.

 

P.S.: When the entire then-novel idea of "equal temperament" was just getting started, the legendary composer and keyboardist J. S. Bach wrote a series of pieces which he entitled"The Well-Tempered Clavier" just to promote it. Of course, all "2 * 24" (yes, he did it twice) of them are "pure genius." (And, well worth studying if you really want to see, by example, "how it all really works.")

 

You Actually Don't Have To "Shift Your Hands."  The end result is actually the same.  You can "play a song in a minor key, beginning with C," simply by playing "E-flat" instead of "E."  If you look carefully, you will see that "the rotated combination of WWHWWWH" turns out exactly the same.  When you "started with A, then moved up to B, then played C," you now crossed a half-step in the third position, whereas when you "start with C, then play D, then E," each of these three notes are separated by a whole step, and the half-step is yet to come. (No: "three versus four" does not matter: what matters is "the WWHWWWH sequence, and where you are right now in it. In the first position, or the sixth. The sequence does not change.)

Therefore ...

 

Every "Mode" Is "A Key Signature" ... Just A Different One:  This is a very important realization.  Every time you "play in a different mode" – any "mode" – you are always playing in one of the "key signatures" that you will find at the left end of any musical score.  It's just a different one ... relative to(!) the key in which you are now "centering."  And this musical tension is the actual source of the magic: the two keys "pull towards and against" the other.

 

Now that you are (hopefully ...) no longer in school and therefore no longer forced to memorize pig-latin, I hope that my little exposure to the topic has piqued your interest.  Because there are usefully-exploitable ideas "not-so hidden" in the theoretical structure of Western music that you just might use to make your next song ... or your last song ... sound refreshing.  Let your audience enjoy your "trick" as a pleasant surprise.  Promise I won't tell them how the trick was done.

 

And no, I don't have a course to sell you. (Should I?)

Edited July 27, 2022 by MikeRobinson

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

On 3/1/2021 at 3:33 PM, MikeRobinson said:

I daresay that a great many musicians have had "a terrible experience that they will not soon forget" with "music theory classes," whether they were in high school or college or both.  How can we soon forget pig-Latin words like "Aeolian" or "Mixolydian," or, God help us, "Phrygian," or the stupid rhymes like "I Don't Particularly Like My Alcoholic Life" (my personal fave ...) which would help you to remember them in proper order – which you had to do, or fail the next exam. 

 

I don't remember any teacher who ever clearly explained to me why I should give a damn about anything they had been saying, once the damned class was through and I'd added another useless-to-me letter to my academic score-card.  None of them told me why it mattered: it was just, "memorize this, and regurgitate it correctly on demand."  Or so I thought at the time.

 

But there really is a reason why you should pay more attention to "the purely-theoretical aspects of music," no matter what you call them.  Because, as composers as early as JS Bach realized, "there is a theoretical, in fact mathematical, basis to Western music."  And it can help you get out of "musical tight spots."  It can offer you creative options that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.  And, it can show you why some of the songs that you love actually "work."

 

No, this post is not a prelude to Yet Another Music Theory Course.  The Internet is already stuffed with them, so it doesn't need one more.  Instead, I'd just like to point out a few "neat tricks" that you can do on any keyboard instrument, as well as things about the keyboard itself that you might not have really considered before.

 

(If you don't play one, go buy a keyboard ... the cheapest one you can find, yes, but buy one.  All twelve notes of Western music, equally available, and with a few musical insights that aren't nearly so obvious with air-tubes or strings.)

 

"All White Notes, But Not 'C'":  Take a song, such as Merrily We Roll Along, and play it using "all white notes."  First, begin on C.  Now, shift your hands two places to the left and play the same song ... all white notes ... beginning with A.  ("As though 'A' were 'C.'")  Suddenly, we're "rolling along" in a minor key!  Now, play the same song beginning with another note.  You have seven to choose from, and every one of them sounds different.  Congratulations: you have just played Merrily We Roll Along in pig-latin:  in seven different modes.

 

White Keys and Black Keys, Unequally Spaced:  When playing on a keyboard, did you ever notice the black keys?   As you played a melody using "the white keys," did you ever consider what it meant that some of the white keys have a black key in-between them, while others do not? That they are not spaced equally, but occur in a group of two and a group of three?  That the "two-group" is separated from the "three group" by two white keys, but "the two white keys" that occur above the "three group" span an octave?  There's method to that madness, and it's actually what produces "the seven modes."  When you moved from one starting white-key to another, you rotated the sequence of "white notes that do have a black note between them" – whole steps – and "those that do not" – half steps.  And, presto, Merrily sounded completely different, seven times in a row, all because of this.

 

Why Does "The Key of F Major" Have "One Flat," and Why Is It B Flat?:  Think back to what happens when you play a song using "all white notes, beginning with C."  (The "C Major Scale.")  Notice the position of those black keys.  Notice the pattern of "whole steps" and "half steps," which by the way is WWHWWWH.  If you play any song, beginning at any starting position on the scale, such that this particular sequence of whole and half steps is preserved, the song will be "in a major key."  So now, start with F as your first note, and count your way up the scale, maintaining that same sequence of whole and half steps.  You'll quickly find that, in order to do that, B must be B-flat.  And that is why.

 

Okay, What About "F Minor?"  Aww, you guessed it already.  Just as you did with "all white keys starting with A instead of C," simply move your fingers two notes to the left, and play your melody as before – with B flat.  "It sounds minor," and for exactly the same reason as before:  because you rotated the sequence:  WHWWHWW.  (Mumble mumble:  "minor key" = "Aeolian mode" = as Nashville musicians would say, "Mode #6.")

 

Surprises of "Equal Temperament" and Intervals:  Most folks do not realize that the notes of the scale are not equally spaced.  (Only the players of non-fretted stringed instruments directly encounter this.)  Instead, the sound frequencies are very slightly altered so that you can actually do what we just did:  "start the scale at any point and it sounds the same."  This is so-called equal temperament.  But you might have noticed already that it doesn't sound quite the same.  If you fool around with the keyboard, playing consecutive notes that are "so-many black-or-white keys apart" (an interval ...), you'll quickly realize that they actually sound different.  Every "chord" is, minimally speaking, "two adjacent intervals," but the same (say) "1-Major" chord does not sound the same when it is constructed at different points (there are 12 to choose from ...) on the keyboard.  Try it for yourself.

 

• Now that you are (hopefully ...) no longer in school and therefore no longer forced to memorize pig-latin, I hope that my little exposure to the topic has piqued your interest.  Because there are usefully-exploitable ideas "not-so hidden" in the theoretical structure of Western music that you just might use to make your next song ... or your last song ... sound refreshing.  Let your audience enjoy your "trick" as a pleasant surprise.  Promise I won't tell them how the trick was done.

 

This is A+, easily the best post I have read on this site. You hit on three major themes.

• Learning by keyboard layout, I never understood this as a guitarist then I learned piano.
• Music as mathematics (the only concept I can fully remember from Music Theory class) almost every Rock musician I have ever tried to explain this to looked like I was talking Greek.
• The Nashville Number System, I actually learned this playing the Chitlin'Circuit as a boy before I ever saw Nashville.

Bravo! Well done! Take an extra bow!

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Clay Anderson Johnson

[MikeRobinson]

Well, thanks.  (*blush!*) 

 

I guess I wrote that piece after I'd gone through at least three "music theory" classes – in junior high, high school, and college – and, while I managed to pass them with the grade I wanted ("A", thank you very much ...), I honestly never understood a thing.  So, many years later, I started using on-line resources to begin to teach myself.  And sure enough, "hidden in there were a few simple-but-important ideas, waiting to get out."

 

They were hidden behind things that I had to memorize without ever being told what they meant.  Decades later, as I explored the cultural history, I learned that at one time there were even more "pig-latin phrases."  I also learned where "do-re-mi" came from!  Finally, I had to figure out for myself what they actually meant, and why they might be important to me.

 

Ironically, one excellent resource is:  a cartoon book!  Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People.  (It is a work in progress – Toby Rush keeps adding to it.)

 

Another resource, if you don't mind reading a book by an extremely well-known songwriter whose "Middle Eight" is an unabashed and very advanced college-level textbook, is Tunesmith, by Jimmy Webb.  (I've fought my way through it dozens of times now, learning something new each time, and I now have signed(!) copies in both softcover and hardback.  Do not expect to read this thing "before you go to sleep at night.")

 

Lately, I've begun exploring the theory of Indian music – as in "India" – which is altogether and completely different and therefore so-far is just completely blowing my mind.  (No, I'm not a masochist – just a geek who likes to understand how things work.)

Edited October 28, 2021 by MikeRobinson

[Glammerocity]

When I first started learning guitar I was 15, so had sat through a few music theory classes at school. I had the sheet music for Fleetwood Mac's Albatross but when I tried to read it, it sounded all wrong. I realised my understanding of keys (4 sharps for Albatross) was wrong. I had to relearn by myself. I learned guitar a lot faster from there with Beatles, Elton John and Zeppelin songbooks and overtook other guitarists at school. When I taught guitar to a few friends' kids I encouraged them to do the same. I explained they didn't need to sight-read, just know what's going on to improve their learning.

 

As a guitarist I'd encourage any guitarist to get a keyboard for writing. I found when I wrote on guitar my melodies were more scale-based. When I wrote on a keyboard I used arpeggios more and my melodies became more melodic, because I was writing the melody with the keyboard rather than strumming chords and singing the melody.

 

Lastly: pentatonic. Bobby McFerrin did this with an adult audience but I saw him do it with kids in a Stewart Copeland documentary and it seems like an inherent human thing:

 

 

[MikeRobinson]

I was always attracted to the keyboard – I am barely passable on stringed instruments – because "every note is equally and instantly available," and because you also instantly see the relationship between them.  There are the twelve notes: some are white keys, some are black, and the spacing of the black keys is not regular.  Even if you don't play keyboards on a regular basis, the design of the thing illustrates many things that western music theory often talks about – such as why the spacing of those black keys is not regular.  When you play the C-major scale ("all white keys"), you see where the black-note ("whole step") intervals do and do not fall.  "What is a 'half step,' and what is a 'whole step?'"  It is immediately and intuitively obvious with a keyboard, unlike every other instrument.

 

(Want an instant "pentatonic scale?" Just play all black keys. It's not the only such scale, but it sure is easy to get to.)

Edited November 8, 2021 by MikeRobinson

[Jim622]

Mike  - great post. i am more guitar oriented. I've picked up bits and pieces of theory over the years, this book helped me understand a lot in a short period of time. It touches on the modes, but does not spend a lot of time there.

 

[MikeRobinson]

"Modes," of course, are easiest to see on keyboard instruments, because by definition each ("equal-temperament") note is equally accessible.  All other instruments might naturally favor only some modes as being easiest to reach – or, as in the case of non-fretted stringed instruments, might be capable of venturing beyond "equal temperament" entirely.

 

Thanks for sharing what I am quite sure is a great book for guitarists.

Edited January 17, 2022 by MikeRobinson

[Jim622]

6 minutes ago, MikeRobinson said:

"Modes," of course, are easiest to see on keyboard instruments, because by definition each [i]("equal-temperament" ...)[/i] note is equally accessible.  All other instruments might naturally favor only some modes as being easiest to reach – or, as in the case of non-fretted stringed instruments, might be capable of venturing beyond "equal temperament" entirely.

 

Thanks for sharing what I am quite sure is a great book for guitarists.

 

Mike - I made a copy of your post and it now has a spot in the folds of that book. Really good post. Thanks

[MikeRobinson]

P.S.: I just updated this old post. Fairly substantially ...

[john]

14 hours ago, MikeRobinson said:

P.S.: I just updated this old post. Fairly substantially ...

 

Hey Mike

 

Perhaps we could tweak it and add the info to a new member article?

 

On 3/1/2021 at 8:33 PM, MikeRobinson said:

And no, I don't have a course to sell you. (Should I?)

 

Maybe. If so, perhaps you would be interested in selling said course via Songstuff? Just saying... we have been working hard on infrastructure and Songstuff would be an ideal platform. It has a load of features to use, including an are soon to be launched that includes video courses. If you did a course and it was text and image based we can still accommodate that. If interested, just hit me up and we can at least discuss it as a possibility.

 

Cheers

 

John

[Steve Klatt]

If anyone is looking for a good read on music. Try checking out "The Inner Game of Music" by Barry Green.

 It helps with stage preforming, concentration, learning, and even not being nervous to preform.

 Imo, it's a great read.

 Sorry just thought I'd throw this in here.

[MikeRobinson]

@john: You have given me a lot to think about here.  (I had not before considered selling anything. We can discuss privately. I can probably manage video.)

Nonetheless, as an initial step please feel free to post the material as a "sticky" article, or otherwise in the site as you see fit, with my blessings.

Edited August 1, 2022 by MikeRobinson

[MikeRobinson]

@Steve Klatt, I agree with your assessment of Barry Green's material.  It is very rare to find someone who can, simultaneously, "know whereof he speaks," and "speak well."  That is to say, someone who can "educate," most-especially using the venue of "a book."