Is Music Theory Important?

Is music theory important? Short answer, yes.

Many people hold the belief that as they are a “just a corps player”, or as they are “only playing as a hobby”, or because they “have made it this far” without needing to understand the theory that no, “it is not important”. They would be right – if they were happy for the art of pipeband music to continue into the next generation in a lethargic manner.

So yes, music theory is important and no, you are not just a drummer, or just a piper, or “just” anything. You are as much responsible for the musical creation as anyone else in your band or on your own.

Why is music theory important?

have new music composed and shared around the world:

art to evolve and improve:

keep the tradition of pipe bands continuing at a lively and positive pace

Being able to understand a drum score can assist you to more comprehensive learning. In order to understand a drum score, you need to know the fundamentals of music theory. If you are able to take it to the next step to be able to write down a rhythm and a simple score, this will assist your reading tremendously.

Music theory helps you write a score down and be able to put this fantastic music into words, to discuss and improve on the score. Try playing a rhythm to yourself and then write it down. Even play a score that you can already play and write that down. Get yourself exposed to writing notes down and checking them against the actual written score and see how close you are. If you do that a number of times, your accuracy will improve until you can write almost anything.

It does take time to develop, it is not an overnight thing. The complexity of our scores and the way we represent them on paper makes writing down a challenge, but DON’T GIVE UP! You will get better and better every time you write something down.

Get in touch with your local Pipe Band Association and attend a Certificate course. This is a great way to learn or brush up on your music theory skills. Alternatively, DrummingMad believes greatly in the importance of learning and understanding music theory, get in touch to arrange an online lesson. You can also read more about our online lessons here.

The importance of music theory is a big topic, of which we have barely touched on here. Check back often as we will cover this topic in further detail.

Let us know in the comments below why you feel that music theory is important?

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CATEGORIES: Practise Tips, Theory, Uncategorized

Tags: Music Theory, Practise, Tips and Tricks