Music theory and reading music can be one of the most debated topics amongst musicians. There are those that side with a more creative, improvisational and listening based approach to learning. There are also those who believe the most effective and powerful way to learn and play music using written notation and understanding music theory. The question is, is one of these approaches actually better than the other?
Music Theory
Learning music theory and reading staff notation can feel like reading a manual. When was the last time you sat down and read a manual for a piece of equipment? It’s not something we often do unless we have a problem.
Victor Wooten says that ”Music is a language“, and language is our primary method of communicating with the world around us. Whilst knowing all the details of a language are not a requirement for any communication, having a deeper understanding of these intricacies can make us more effective.
Every language has rules or guidelines to follow and it’s these guidelines that enable lots of people to use a language and communicate effectively and quickly with one another. One way we can think of these guidelines is as the lines or boundaries we find on a football pitch. Without any of the lines the game makes no sense. No goals can be scored. The pitch has no limit. Most of the structure of the game is completely taken away. Music theory and notation are the structures that help music make sense.
It is absolutely possible to reach a high level of skill without knowing all of the rules. (Nobody knows the rules like a referee after all). There are many world class musicians who openly say they can’t read music but still have the capacity to perform at highest level. Time, experience and musical exposure are all great teachers to those who choose not learn to read music. So too is the everyday act of listening to music, its a chance to explore uncharted sounds, melodies and rhythms, seeing them all with fresh eyes.
A Quick History
This listening to and importantly, memorising of music, was the only way of transmitting and continuing every musical tradition in human history at one point. Many people invested time and energy in to the preservation of their music as it was also the primary way of maintaining their history and culture.
The same can be said for music that is written down. There are many different methods of writing music notation that have been used throughout the centuries, from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe, many ancient societies had a form of “instructions” for their musicians in order to produce the right type of performance.
The standardisation of modern notation developed in Europe from the early 7th and 8th century but developed significantly into the form recognised today in 1500-1800s through the Baroque, Renaissance, Romantic and Classical periods of music. It was actually because of the development of notation that composers and their music we’re able to consumed by larger audiences and across nations.
Modern Day Music
These days there are so many different ways of capturing and sharing music. From staff notation, tablature, Nashville numbers, chord charts and others there are even more ways to write down music than ever before. With advances in technology too, anyone can record a musical ideal in both audio and video and share it to anyone almost instantly. It is so easy to find a method that works for your context and use it to its fullest potential.
Whilst it’s true that not all of these methods qualify as “music theory” there is a degree of knowledge needed to use them.
So do I need to read music?
As mentioned above, it is probably not essential in all musical scenarios these days to be able to read staff notation. However, we’ve all seen the social media videos where we learn how to do something with an everyday piece of technology that we didn’t know previously. This is usually information probably found in the manual. Learning to read music opens up a whole new perspective and understanding on the world of music and reveals things we didn’t even think were possible.
Here at The Drum Hub, we teach and encourage all of students to read music as part of their education. Once a student reaches a level of understanding and performance they are able to decide if they want to pursue the skill further or not depending on the context they choose to play in. Either way, having the knowledge to begin with is better than not having it all. Having the skill of reading opens opportunities for students that wouldn’t be available without it. Our goal is to train students to be balanced and well rounded musicians.
Do you read music? Would you like to or do you not need to? Let us know in the comments.
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