What exactly is Music Theory?

Music theory is the study of the fundamental elements of music. Those elements can include: Pitch, Rhythm, Harmony, Melody, Structure, and Texture…among some other things. Of course, within each of these elements, there are countless topics that you can explore and study.

But, why does it matter?

Music is an aural art - which means it is always more about what we hear. Music Theory just gives us the ability to describe what it is that we have heard. It’s like this: What if we had never given names to any of the colors? We would have no way to describe what we see in nature, or in art…or how to paint the living room. In the same way, music theory gives us a way to describe written music. We can see what composers have written down, and have intelligent conversation on its meaning. We can also see exactly how the music is supposed to be played.

Music theory also teaches us how music works. It teaches us how to be better performers, composers, and even listeners of music. It takes music from being a series of sounds to being an emotional art. We learn to hear the function of musical elements, and we can hear patterns in the music. From there, we can actually gain the ability to hear a piece of music, and then write down what we have heard. It also gives us the ability to listen to a piece of music and understand and appreciate what the composer wrote.

So, whether you are a professional musician, or someone who has just started learning an instrument, or even someone who just likes to listen to music, it’s important to study and learn music theory.