So You Want to Learn Music Theory....

 

Many people I meet tell me they would like to learn about music theory. I often quip that it's not "theory," it's fact. But theory is what people refer to as the "system" upon which our music is built. (Of course I include theory with my piano students, so I am showing them what I believe is the best way to learn.) 

They ask if they should get a book or go to the internet. The answer is no and no. A textbook is going to be quite dry. More importantly, unless you can apply what you read, it won't be much use. And the best way by far to apply what you learn about theory is to play it on the piano. When I was at Manhattan School of Music, all the non-piano majors were required to take a few semesters of piano because basic piano skills are necessary to learn theory, among other things.

If you want to learn the basics of theory, I recommend the following. It all involves basic piano skills, so if you don't have those yet, you will need to do that first.

Phase I

1. Familiarize yourself with all the major and minor keys. Our music (I am speaking of the Western World) is almost all based on "keys." To be in a given key means to be based on that scale. Therefore, you will need to get familiar with all the major and minor scales. Almost all the music you play will be based on these two types of scale. However, I do not recommend spending hours and hours on this. Even if you play a G# minor scale a hundred times, it doesn't mean you will suddenly find it easy to play a piece in G# minor. Please see my previous post on scales and do them as I suggest, which is in moderation, and not worrying about specific fingering. It does not necessitate that you read music.

2. Learn all the major and minor chords (triads). However, you must do it in a way which really shows you the "system," not just purchase a chord chart that shows you them written out. Again, please see my much earlier post on chords to learn the very specific way I teach them. My method does not require that you read music yet.

3. Get a copy of the Circle of Fifths and begin to memorize it. Keep a copy at your piano so you always have it to refer to. You can even post it on your fridge or somewhere you'll see it all the time. The Circle of Fifths is not just for learning the key signatures of all 12 major and minor keys; it is a picture of how our musical system is organized. The interval of a fifth plays a huge role in our music. When you are playing a piece of music, even a fairly simple one, you will start to notice that music likes to move by fifths. Not always, of course, but a lot. In the course of playing simple music, whether by ear or by reading, you will learn the importance of the I, IV and V chords. These are all related by fifths.

Phase II

1. Learn the other two types of triads, diminished and augmented, and all five kinds of 7th chords. Again, it is important to do this in the right way; otherwise you may never really know them well. See my earlier post.

2. In Phase I you played all the scales. But playing the E-flat minor scale doesn't mean you'll find it easy right away to play a piece in E-flat minor. Reading in a key with 6 flats may be daunting for quite a while. But what you can do to start preparing yourself is to improvise in every key. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just a melody and a few chords that would occur commonly in that key. If you can improvise in a key it means you can "think" in that key. It isn't actually thinking, of course, it's more like speaking. If you learn to speak French, at first you will always translate in your mind from English to French. But if you become fluent in French, you may find you actually start to think in French. So it is with music; you can become "fluent" in all the keys.

You will notice that neither Phase I or Phase II involves reading music. Yes, you can learn all the basics without reading actual music notation. When you learn to read music, it will help drive home some of what you have learned, but it's technically not necessary.

Voila! If you can do all of the above you have probably about 80% of what you need to know about music theory. And hopefully you applied what you learned along the way. The other 20% would involve learning about musical forms, other more complex chords, possibly the other scales that people now refer to as "modes," and a few other items.