Why Music Theory is so Confusing

If you want to make any progress with music theory, you have to have a rock solid mental model of the major scale and what it sounds like to move around in it. This seems obvious to me now, but it took decades for me to discover and then surrender to this simple idea. You might think I had an advantage playing an instrument that mostly limits you to the major scale – the blues harmonica. But all I wanted to do at first was play the notes that were playing hard to get – the bent notes…

When I did one of my occasional attempts to teach myself music theory, it would go from really simple to impossible to understand in about five minutes. Here’s why: too many music courses start off with a description of the major scale that goes something like this: A seven note scale that has the following pattern of whole steps and half steps: Whole, whole, half, whole, whole whole, half…Then I hear an example of this major scale, and I hear eight notes, and I hear that the eighth note is the same as the first note but an octave higher.

My brain is not wired to process this kind of information. The way I hear it is something like this: “The major scale is a seven note scale that has eight notes but the first and last note are the same but they are not the same and the pattern is blah blah blee blah blah blah blee…” My brain tries to pound these square pegs into round holes while the course races ahead droning on about Greek modes: Ioric, Dorianic, Pantaloovian, Lysergic, etc… Now I’m staggering through the fog of war, listening to statements like “well, actually when you are playing in G Myxolliviant, you are REALLY. playing in the key of C Major.”

I begin to accept that I will never understand music but maybe I can pretend that I do. Or I go into a militant folkie trip that “nobody I know understands this, why should I bother?” I went on like this for years. Flashes of insight followed by long nights of confusion. It took years but I started to find instructors who were kind and patient and able to show me ways to learn that could work for me.

I’ve finally figured out how I can learn practical music theory that solves problems. Music only makes sense to me when I can hear it. Thinking about music in abstract terms drives me crazy and is useless. The same process that I use to learn and play a tune works for learning music theory. I have to play or sing examples of the theory idea until it sinks in and feels normal. Then I own it and can use it.

Anything less than this is wandering around in la la land with a bad map and no GPS.

I made a youtube video that expands on these ideas with examples of how to turn abstract musical ideas into something you can listen to:

Why Music Theory is Confusing and What to do About it

If you read the comments, you will see perfect examples of someone who just doesn’t get it: An anonymous “One Eyed Monster” posted a long comment that seems to be mainly about showing off their awesome musical knowledge. I asked them if they would post a video where they play examples of what they are talking about and got another long post with more of the same mental gymnastics while completely ignoring my request for something to listen to. I find it fascinating that people go into these comment forums with weird nicknames and put so much time and energy into writing this stuff.

OK that’s it for today – have an awesome musical day!

Richard