Theory

[highwaysalmon]

Over the last couple days I have been pondering on wether to learn musical theory or not. I have been playing guitar for about one year and I'm at the stage now where i feel i need to practice for weeks in order to feel improvement.

I have had a few people suggest to me that learning musical theory could improve my playing. I think it would be great aswell because it would improve my improvisation/solos and I think it would also help out my band because the guitar parts would sound more solid.

The reason I have been pondering about it, is because I know it will take alot out of my straight guitar playing practice and it takes a long time to master and you have to but alot of hard work into it.

I've considered taking lessons just to learn the theory part of guitar but then wondered if it is possible to learn over the internet.

So my question to you is, Do you think learning theory would improve my guitar playing abilities in thre long run? Do you suggest taking lessons to learn theory or is it possible to learn over the internet?

All info is appreciated, thanks.

[Merkaba]

learning theory can only help you. It can just be a bitch. I know little....but there is an official theory thread around here...maybe on the next page or two.

[Trigger_003]

Theory is a definite - it adds so much more to your musicianship.

Read through all of http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=481789 and you'll see a lot of the pro's for doing it. There really aren't that many cons.
Sure, aspects may be hard if you go it alone, but if you have good resources (don't forget to ask here - there are loads of people willing to help you out. check out the guitar subforum "beginner's questions" as well... i help a lot of people out with theory there) you'll find that it doesn't take that long to pick things up. You'll find, if you apply yourself, you'll have a good understanding of the basics very quickly.

It's fine to learn over the net. Many do. Buying some books would be great also. Lessons are - or can be... depends on the teacher and what they're teaching - great and are particularly good if you think you'll lack the motivation at all, or possibly won't be bothered actually doing the exercises. Lessons can allow you to go a lot faster (someone can explain it in person, in a variety of different ways, and if they're in that position they're often likely to be quite accurate (but not always, as my replacement music teacher at school is currently proving) it also forces you to do the exercises that are set, which improve understanding), but also have the potential to hold you back (peoplelearn at different rates - if you get ahead you might end up being pretty bored in the class. trust me, it's no fun having to hear something like the major scale pattern being taught over and over again when you've long surpassed it).

Oh wait... you mean guitar lessons as in private tuition?
You won't get as much theory there. You'll get some if you have a good teacher, and it will be applied, but if you're going in there solely to learn theory, that's usually not the place to go. Simply because that teacher is teaching how to play the instrument more than the theory. If you happen to find a teacher that's happy to focus on the theory side more and applying it, that would be great though.

One of the main things you'll be wanting to do on the side though is learning how to actually read notation on guitar. You don't have to be able to sight read insanely hard pieces or anything, but a basic understanding. Most theory is taught in notation (sheet music, as opposed to tab) so to be actually able to apply it, which is pretty much the entire point of learning theory in the first place, you'll need to be able to do that. It'll make a lot more sense there too; there are a whole heap of shortcuts and things have more meaning when looking at it from this perspective. With tab, because you're just staring at a pile of numbers, there doesn't always seem to be a point to a lot of theory.

THAT (tab) is one of the key reasons why guitarists say theory is hard. It's really hard to teach theory to someone without any knowledge of notation.

http://www.musictheory.net is great for the introductory stages into theory. Past that you can get into a lot more, and you can generally browse sites and be able to tell, to an extent, which ones are fairly acurate. If you're just learning through the net in particular, try to back up what you discover unless you know the site to be reliable, such as at musictheory.net and http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryindex.htm
A guitar-based one you might want to look at is cyberfret.com, which is quite good, but what you get there is pretty basic, so don't feel like that's all there is to learn if you're looking for more at the end of it.

Sorry, I should get to my homework... hope that helps in some way :)

[Camel42]

Over the last couple days I have been pondering on wether to learn musical theory or not. I have been playing guitar for about one year and I'm at the stage now where i feel i need to practice for weeks in order to feel improvement.

I have had a few people suggest to me that learning musical theory could improve my playing. I think it would be great aswell because it would improve my improvisation/solos and I think it would also help out my band because the guitar parts would sound more solid.

The reason I have been pondering about it, is because I know it will take alot out of my straight guitar playing practice and it takes a long time to master and you have to but alot of hard work into it.

I've considered taking lessons just to learn the theory part of guitar but then wondered if it is possible to learn over the internet.

So my question to you is, Do you think learning theory would improve my guitar playing abilities in thre long run? Do you suggest taking lessons to learn theory or is it possible to learn over the internet?

All info is appreciated, thanks.

Theory = Lead Guitar

It's never mastered, thats why its so great.

Its like a perpetual motion machine for the acceleration of musical skill rather than motion.

I learned it through books and the aid of composition software to practice on.

[gunsNroses9167]

music theory is great, it helped me alot. im the lead guitar playing in my band and i noticed it defeinly hepls on improv. but i have a class in school i take.

[Joseph India]

I would like to add that theory makes you much more comfortable with your instrument.
I know guitarists who have been playing longer than me but know less theory and its easy to see that they don't have as much command over their instrument. I mean music theory is one way to bring you to a level where you feel like you know exactly what you're doing and you're playing is solid both when improvising and not.
If you're not really really interested it's going to take a long time to learn, but don't let that discourage you. Instead let that make you hungry for knowledge.
Like most have said, lessons are very helpful if you find a good teacher. Talk to your potential teacher before getting lessons. One thing to watch out for is teachers who deliberately teach you too slowly. This is why you should be wary of teachers who work from home with few students because they will often do this. Go to someone who teaches many students (maybe at a music store). There are a lot of crappy teachers so choose wisely.

[Puzzle]

^agreed, learning theory is relative cake if you can read notation.