Does Music Theory Limit Creativity?
1. The Descriptor
There are several different types of learners when it comes to learning an instrument. There are those that want to make sure that they don’t miss anything that could potentially be helpful to them, with the aim of becoming a holistically competent player. Then there are those that only want to know what they have to know in order to be able to do the thing that they want to do.
For those in the latter group, I have often been asked what the point is of learning music theory or asked if it really matters! - my feelings were indeed hurt…😔.
One year I even ran a masterclass for a group of grade 8 violinists prior to their exam to help them with musicality, shaping and conveying their pieces. After spending 45 minutes talking about the sentiment Beethoven was attempting to convey through the use of chords in his Spring Sonata, I then took questions. The first of which was; “do we really need to know this stuff?”.
Once again, my feelings were indeed hurt…😔.
The problem with this kind of mentality is that it assumes that music theory is an added extra that can be chosen or not chosen to learn alongside an instrument. Yet that isn’t really what music theory is or how it works.
Imagine attempting to win a game of chess without understanding the rules of chess? As you get better and play against harder opponents the game theory you require becomes more and more detailed and nuanced. This isn’t just the theory of playing chess - this IS chess itself.
The same can be said for music theory. Music theory is a description of music, not a prescription. Every single thing that you do within music can be viewed and explained through music theory. Learning music theory is simply understanding what you are actually doing, which is learning music itself!
So, to the violinist that asked; “do we really need to know this stuff?”. My answer is; that depends…do you want to learn how to say a string of words in mandarin without knowing what the story is that you are saying, or do you want to learn what it is that you are trying to say so you can express the story better?
2. Exceptions
As I mentioned previously; music theory is a description of music and therefore there are always exceptions to be made. In-fact the basis of 20th century composition was on this very premise - how far can you push music?
Understanding the concepts in music theory serves as a way of explaining what happens but that doesn’t mean it always has to happen that way. For example, most pieces of music use a major or minor scale, yet there are some that don’t! Going against the conventions of music theory is itself interesting and tells us something about the music. This means that understanding what conventionally happens within music also tells us when those rules are broken.
If we have a 12-tone piece, which as a piece that doesn’t stick to a conventional scale and uses all 12 piano keys, this will sound much less stable and more erratic than a piece that does stick to a regular major scale. This means that before playing any notes we can understand the feeling that this music is going to create simply because we understand what usually happens within music.
Similarly, if we know that a piece of music usually uses regular chords from the scale, if the piece of music then uses a chord from a different scale or an unusually chord that we wouldn’t usually see, then we know that this chord is going to sound interesting or unusual in context.
3. Expanding and Shrinking
Music theory is there to provide you with options rather than hinder your ability to be creative. It can provide formulas to create specific effects or a way of understanding the pieces of music that you are looking at. However, this doesn’t mean that you always need to consider music theory to play any notes. Often, if you find a sound that you like without consideration for music theory, that choice you have made can be explained using music theory so that you know why and how it works.
There are many musicians that find themselves in the opposite circumstance, becoming trapped within the confines of conventional music theory…when in fact I would simply describe this as not knowing enough music theory to understand that everything is an option!
Ultimately, learning music theory is the only way of learning music. Playing an instrument is simply the way in which we express those concepts, so if you find yourself unable to be creatively free on your instrument or find that you don’t understand why a composer has written a piece in the way that they have, then work out exactly what it is that you aren’t understanding and consider working out what is actually happening in the music using music theory.
Feel free to let me know by responding to this email if you come across something you don’t understand and I may address it in a future Monday Music Tips or a YouTube video.
Matthew Cawood
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