Should New Piano Students Know Theory?
Music theory is the study of why chords sound the way they do and how to build them, what makes melody so melodic, why different modes give different feelings, and much more. Now music theory for pianists has always been an integral part of the study of the instrument. However, today’s fast paced world with its pop music, instant gratification, and learning everything (not just piano and not just music) “by ear” has made many piano students and even some instructors question whether there is really any value in music theory.
Except for people that are intellectuals, most people believe music theory is boring and needlessly complicated and music is supposed to be fun, not a mathematical exercise; and it’s hard enough training the muscles of the hand and learning to sight-read without bothering with all that theory. Music theory helps tremendously with training your ear and gives you very enhanced improvisational and compositional powers and learning chords and how to play them is a very valuable tool for the pianist.
Most musicians need theory to help them with ear training. For example, if you have perfect pitch, knowledge of theory is needed to help with relative pitch and the structure of melody and harmony so you can compose or improvise music with skill. Even if you can read music adequately doesn’t mean you can compose a great symphony or give the understanding to analyze a great piece of music.
Have you ever heard someone reading aloud with no feeling, no sense of when to emphasize, no “flow”? But they obviously knew how to speak the words and how to read to be able to read aloud. They sound so bad because they lack a depth of understanding of what they are actually reading.
So even if a person reads without expression they may understand what the words mean, but they still do not grasp the true meaning of the words. If they really understood what they were reading, the reading would be more impressive. This holds true for musicians: if they can read the notes, they would be much better musicians by infusing the notes with expression.
Even if you have been born with perfect pitch or have the knack to perform music, with theory you will have the knowledge you need to understand why music sounds the way it does. Music theory is a basic skill that most people are required to learn in college level classes. A music major should know how music is put together in order to understand how to perform or compose music.
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