Music Theory

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Music Teachers Chatboard

Music Theory

by Srdan Kozlica

Dec 13, 2016

I am often asked about or in a situation to talk about why it is necessary to study music theory and study/practise scales, arpeggios and chords. To the majority of students, whether children or adults, these theoretical and technical issues seem to be unnecessary and of not so strong importance to some of the learners and thus a path which could be avoided almost entirely or at least partially in favour of a "more direct" way of learning. While this could be the case at the very beginning or in some special cases or situations, or perhaps with only some people at some specific stage of their development, it is also true that in a really successful piano and music learning these very knowledge and skills are essential. Why is this so? It pretty much works in two ways, in the sense that the music theory and the piano technique are stemming from the music itself as well as the music pieces are created, constructed and based on various elements from the music theory and various ...See MoreI am often asked about or in a situation to talk about why it is necessary to study music theory and study/practise scales, arpeggios and chords. To the majority of students, whether children or adults, these theoretical and technical issues seem to be unnecessary and of not so strong importance to some of the learners and thus a path which could be avoided almost entirely or at least partially in favour of a "more direct" way of learning. While this could be the case at the very beginning or in some special cases or situations, or perhaps with only some people at some specific stage of their development, it is also true that in a really successful piano and music learning these very knowledge and skills are essential. Why is this so? It pretty much works in two ways, in the sense that the music theory and the piano technique are stemming from the music itself as well as the music pieces are created, constructed and based on various elements from the music theory and various piano playing techniques. In both cases, all of that works simultaneously, goes hand in hand with each other and thus forms an organic unity. However, that organic unity requires us to get to know better its constitutive elements and that is precisely the reason why we have to deal with the theory and the technique during the formative periods in our piano /music education. In the lessons, I often encounter students struggling and many times it is due to a lack of the aforementioned knowledge and skills. Also, more often than not, they seem to be almost completely unaware of the real reason why some particular place in the piece of music they are learning is not working, despite of their multiple repetitions of the place in question. In a way, learning the pieces to play without the general technical and theoretical back up, is almost like learning the piano from scratch as if being a nearly total beginner, whereas when having the general theoretical and technical back up, we learn much faster and more successfully and therefore all the effort input in the general backing up pays off more than well :) One last thought, even the scales and arpeggios will go much better if we understand them very well from the theoretical standpoint. I hope to inspire all the learners with this article and help them in achieving their musical goals quicker and more successfully!

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