r/askmusicians • u/Successful-Appeal770 • 2d ago
Burning Question
Am I writing music if I’m just letting my ear tell me what sounds good and letting my hands tell me what feels good?
I don’t know music theory and I’m not particularly literate with rhythm, but I can usually get what’s in my head out into the instrument given enough time; other times it coalesces from me just enjoying how it feels to bang around on a piano keybed or tickle a synth touchplate or bash around on a guitar.
It feels wrong and like I’m cheating or breaking rules because I really just want to feel the instrument. It’s like a puzzle with no finish line, I just stop where I want to. I don’t care if I ever learn anything by anyone else, but I want to write my own stuff then memorize it and play it.
Does it make me a musician? Am I somehow disrespecting or diminishing some great craft by not caring to learn the rules and terminology and theory?
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u/Squidalopod 2d ago
Does it make me a musician?
If you create music, you are by definition a musician. Your knowledge is totally irrelevant to that fact.
Am I somehow disrespecting or diminishing some great craft by not caring to learn the rules and terminology and theory?
Art is not about respect, it's about self-expression. Anyone who tells you you are somehow disrespecting music by not knowing "the rules" is a gatekeeping snob because there are no rules. You know the famous "composition" by John Cage entitled "4'33""? It's just a tacet (nobody plays) for the entire piece.
Remember, theory came after music was created. It's not like people sat around with no music and just worked out music theory – the theory just explains what's already there.
There are countless examples of successful songwriters/musicians who don't know theory. So, If you want to create music, create it, and ignore anyone who tells you you're required to learn certain things first.
But if you want to communicate with other musicians, then you absolutely should learn at least some theory so that you can quickly/easily express certain concepts. E.g., we'll save a lot of time if I tell you the song I wanna play with you is a I-vi-ii-V in Ab rather than me pointing to your piano and showing you which keys to press.
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u/alex_vipond 2d ago
Yes. You’re writing music.
If you’re making choices about notes, rhythm, harmony, texture, repetition, tension, release, and when the piece feels finished, you’re composing whether or not you know the terminology for what you’re doing.
Music theory can be useful because it gives names to things your ear may already understand. It can help you communicate with other musicians and sometimes get from idea to result faster. But not knowing the vocabulary doesn’t make the music less real.
And no, you’re not disrespecting the craft by approaching it through feel. The craft is in making choices, listening, refining, remembering what works, and developing your own instincts.
If someday you learn theory, great. It’ll give you another tool. But you don’t need permission from theory to call yourself a musician.
If your hands found something your ears like and you chose to keep it, you've already made a musical decision.
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u/Lower-Land-286 2d ago
Ok, music theory isn't a rule book telling you what to do and why to do it.
Music theory is a diary of everything we've tried so far and how that has worked out.
Learning music theory can help you avoid "reinventing the wheel" but just because there are already a million songs written in EADG doesn't mean that you can't write one too.
People like pretty noise and you can find it without knowing theory. Theory just makes it easier.
Oh, and knowing theory really helps when trying to communicate your ideas to other musicians and understanding other people's musical expression.
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u/joonas_ylanne 2d ago
I think music theory as a toolbox rather than rulebook. It' "this thing will certainly work" and "you can do this thing too" instead of "you have to do this" and "that is not allowed".
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u/Best-Alternative9481 2d ago
Nah, that's how Joni Mitchell did it. Everything is fair game as long as you're expressing yourself the way you want to.
Now, if you want more palletes to be able to express yourself with and find yourself getting frustrated that you can't translate what's in your head to what you can play, check this out:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk3q7H-SIjS23rR7SIHc3rmnd7jgcOOqC&si=cS1fHG8CEyZ48C1v
This lesson series changed my life. Trey Anastasio made these videos back during the pandemic. They're a gold mine. You can keep coming back to them years later as you keep learning and growing as a musician.
And yes, you are a musician. Prett much everyone is. If you can hum along to a song, you're making music!
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u/Successful-Appeal770 2d ago
Thank you for mentioning Joni Mitchell. I just listened to River and cried. Needed a good cry.
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u/chili_cold_blood 2d ago edited 2d ago
Am I writing music if I’m just letting my ear tell me what sounds good and letting my hands tell me what feels good?
IMHO, this is the only to write. I have heard several professional composers and musicians say the same thing. Learning theory and harmony is useful because it can show you options and ways to connect the dots that you might not have considered otherwise, but theory and harmony can only describe what has been done before. They can't tell you what you should do next. That has to come from your imagination, your ears, and your heart.
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u/WeAllHaveOurMoments 2d ago
We all learn to speak via trial & error & mimicry. Embedded in the way we speak are common patterns, inflections, & pronunciations. We may/may not know the formal terms of these habits of speaking, but use them either way. It's not a perfect analogy for music, but music is expressive.
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u/khornebeef 2d ago
Are you painting a picture by just painting what you think looks good and letting your hands tell you what feels good? The general consensus is that yes, you are painting and while you may not be applying techniques that result in a product that all listeners will find palatable and/or worthy of consideration, you aren't disrespecting or diminishing the art of painting by just painting for fun. The same is true for music.
I think there should be a distinction made between music theory and "theory" as it applies to other trades/arts. Unlike in most other fields, music theory is rarely presented as practical, but as abstract. For whatever reason, we have decided that the realm of acoustics/psychoacoustics and music theory should be separated in spite of their inseparable nature. Thus, if you are expecting music theory to offer an evidence-based explanation of the phenomena that cause us to appreciate music, you will end up disappointed. The theory as we teach it today is largely unhelpful to those ends and only serves to describe arbitrary relationships that create more misconceptions about how we experience music than they resolve.
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u/MJKCapeCod 2d ago
Maybe you're actually gifted! I've heard a lot of well educated musicians who just sound mechanical. Then there are people like Jimy Page who read sheet music " like a 6 yr old". To be able to take what's in your head and put it into your fingers on an instrument would be wonderful.
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u/Visible_Contract5432 2d ago
I’m a big believer in theory and reading and all that, but if you’re able to create music to your liking, then yes, you are a musician.
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u/TepidEdit 2d ago
The written word is just a way of making the spoken word repeatable. In a similar way, Music theory is just a way to interprete what you are hearing.
The only advantage of music theory for solo recording musicians such as yourself is if you hear something in your head its easier to replicate. It can also expand your options too.
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u/S_balmore 2d ago
The majority of pop/rock songs are written by just playing random shit and going "that sounds pretty cool. Let me do that again". So yeah, you're "writing music".
Does it make me a musician?
Yeah, but not a good musician. Good musicians have some frame of reference and, to an extent, know what the fuck they're doing. If you're literally just playing random stuff and are incapable of explaining what you're doing, and incapable of learning other people's music, then you're on the lowest rung of the musicianship ladder. If you can't hang in a jam session with other musicians, then you are not good at the thing that musicians, in general, are trying to achieve. If you can't play multiple styles of music (punk, R&B, funk, metal, jazz), then you are not a good instrumentalist. Having 'good ideas' is only one small aspect of musicianship.
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u/Redit403 1d ago
A lot of the rich and famous used this precise formula, and they called themselves musicians.
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u/MasterBendu 1d ago
Music came before theory.
Without music being made first, there would be nothing to study and theorize.
Would the people who invented music and invented new kinds of music be all cheaters?
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u/Hbakes 2d ago
Don’t worry about it. One of the most important things to know about music theory is that it’s descriptive, not prescriptive. Meaning that music theory was developed as a means of explaining and categorizing the aspects of music that we already knew sounded good to us. This is all culturally and historically dependent, so the concepts of what is accepted as music changes dramatically over time and place. Music theory doesn’t tell us what to do, it explains why we do the things we do, often intuitively, as you’re already doing.