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GOFONES are musical geniuses and none of us know music theory.

Originally posted by neil ex
...you could argue that you become a better musician and get more out of playing music that way

You just answered the question yourself

i suppose you work music theory out yourself

you have to really

[Frosty Jack]

I don't think it can do any harm... It's kind of like having an instruction manual. Knowing the theory won't necessarily make you any more creative, but it does help if you know why A minor works so well in C, or the best chord to play after a D7 or whatever. I don't see how it takes the fun out of music as long as you use it as guidelines and not rules.
Any writer can have a really good story, but you can write a better book if you know about good grammar and vocabulary.

[Dan Atom]

Music theory helped me immensely. I learnt it myself and enjoy it, and it's damn useful in knowing certain things.

I enjoy talking about it and finding out new things for myself, and anyone who says "geek" or "it takes the fun out of music" is clearly a fool.

i'm studying music theory right now as i have a lot of work to catch up for higher music.
it can be quite complicated at times, but then again, also makes sense very often. apart from all those italian terms...
i was wondering the same thing as well recently, but i think its a good way of actually understanding what you listen to all the time. and its also very helpful when writing songs, so they make more "sense" musically and not sound like a random bunch of chords or other garnage.

[Hogisbald]

I barely know how to tune my guitar, I know fuck all theory but I should learn! I like to think that this helps in creating your own style but to a point.

Originally posted by pop-notmyface
i'm studying music theory right now as i have a lot of work to catch up for higher music.
it can be quite complicated at times, but then again, also makes sense very often. apart from all those italian terms...
i was wondering the same thing as well recently, but i think its a good way of actually understanding what you listen to all the time. and its also very helpful when writing songs, so they make more "sense" musically and not sound like a random bunch of chords or other garnage.

hmmm, i did higher music aswell, and i did inventing at advanced higher level in 6th year

higher music isn't really anything to do with writing good music, it's just you write music to pass an exam, that's why i didn't really like it.

it's like someone would hand in a peice for the teacher to mark and the teacher might say to put in a chord change and that someone would put in the chord change regardless of whether they thought the song needed a chord change or not, i think hardly anyone in my class wrote music because they wanted to write music, just that they wanted to get an extra higher, which is fine really.

im not exactly content with the music i write in class, cos i need to tune it to my teachers expectations....

[Lester Burnham]

Originally posted by Philip Johnston
Learning music theory will not affect your creativity in a negative way, but can open you up to lots of other options that you wouldn't have previously known about!

I'll second that,
I'm seriously thinking about getting to know about all this theory business... though I must say it didn't stop me from writing a mega 80's synth piece last night... Steve says it'll buy my ranch.

But yeah, I don't think it affects your creativity, but I think it helps you get your desired result faster... though I personally don't think all the structured, "this sounds good with that" things are a pile of bollocks, some of the best sounding pieces I've heard have been made with the most bizarre combinations of notes and chords.