Current Events > Does anyone here know music theory?

(+) Yeah! (+)

If so, might I ask your recommendation on how to learn music theory from scratch with no prior knowledge of music? I'd like to try my hand at making simple chip tunes or some simple electronic music, but everything I've tried to learn from seems to be like a review, as though they expect you to have musical knowledge from playing an instrument or taking a class even if the resource claims you don't need any of that. I want to learn the structure of music and to assemble songs in a DAW note by note---I can't and don't want to play a guitar or whatever.

I get that most people with an interest in music pick up stuff or take a class at a young age. I didn't have that opportunity. It took me ages to find a book on drawing that explained things like primitives, form, gesture, etc. instead of inviting you to "draw the owl" or look at pretty drawings while the book explains nothing. Music theory seems much worse in this regard, but just like drawing, sculpture, 3D modeling, or math, there must surely be building blocks that make everything and surely I can make progress once I've understood those.

Any advice? Thanks!

Step one is learning key signatures, scales, and note values. Everything builds off that.

Go to your nearest book store and buy a book on beginner music theory. Seriously. Online learning for music is cool and all when you're already a little knowledgeable but for beginners it's a fucking corn maze. YT vids try and appeal to the broadest audience, and a lot of essential shit is paywalled or just not organized well.

The most important part of beginning to learn theory or an instrument is structure.

Smashingpmkns posted...

Go to your nearest book store and buy a book on beginner music theory. Seriously. Online learning for music is cool and all when you're already a little knowledgeable but for beginners it's a fucking corn maze. YT vids try and appeal to the broadest audience, and a lot of essential shit is paywalled or just not organized well.

Thank you for this advice. I just grabbed a book for Kindle, and I have another sitting in my cart that is even easier in case that one fails. Hopefully this gets me back on track!

No worries. 2 pages of a book is basically a 15 minute YT video you'd have to rewind and watch over and over to get down.

Just remember if you ever feel like you're not getting it or if you ever feel discouraged, people of all ages pay good money to have someone teach them in person weekly, and you're essentially teaching yourself. Take breaks, don't get frustrated. Make it fun. Learning theory on its own is not very fun imo, but try and make something fun with what you learn along the way.

I use my ear when playing. I know little theory unfortunately. I tried to learn it, but it goes in one ear and out the other.