Board 8 > Is music theory actually just magic

(+) Yeah! (+)

I recently started watching 8-bit music theory on YouTube, it's pretty mind-blowing. I'm convinced that words used in music theory are actually incantations that music geeks use to put spells on people.
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Relevant image

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1zP5qrIL-5/
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yes, definitely

I once did a song ranking project and it was so hard because I didn't have anything to say except "I like this one" and "this one, not so much"
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Leanansidhe posted...

Without the aid of an eldritch god there's no way the human mind can comprehend all their arcane runes.

Yes! Musicians have clearly made pacts with otherworldly beings.

If any of these sorcerers encounter this topic and have YouTube channel recommendations so that I may continue to peek at their magic... please post them.
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have degree, can confirm

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Peace___Frog posted...

YouTube channel recommendations

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnkp4xDOwqqJD7sSM3xdUiQ

Seems to mostly do kinda advanced stuff but it's still cool

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Andrew Huang also has some theory stuff although it's more about production than what you're talking about but he is a cool dude so too bad

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depends. did han ever bewitch you?
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Tom Bombadil posted...

Peace___Frog posted...

YouTube channel recommendations

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnkp4xDOwqqJD7sSM3xdUiQ

Seems to mostly do kinda advanced stuff but it's still cool

Yes i subbed ty

NFUN posted...

depends. did han ever bewitch you?

If he did he was either playing the long game or he messed something up, because it's been over 5 years and I'm just now catching this bug of awe and wonder.
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Bump for night crowd, do they believe in the unfathomable tricks that these dastards are able to play on the masses?
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Music theory is just basic arithmetic. If you can count to 12, you can understand pretty much all of music theory.

Source: Have a bachelor's degree in music.
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you lived with me how long and didn't realize this
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I didn't pay much attention to what you did tbh
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Music is a technology and a math/science. If those are magic (which that famous phrase suggests they are) then sure music is magic.
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Peace___Frog posted...

If any of these sorcerers encounter this topic and have YouTube channel recommendations so that I may continue to peek at their magic... please post them.

Kent Hewitt is the best for piano jazz harmony. Aimee Nolte and Jeff Schneider are good too, someone already mentioned Adam Neely although I find his stuff is less functionally useful to know and more "that's a neat concept" stuff

But a lot of these theory youtubers are making stuff for an audience that they expect already knows some fundamental things, so of course it's going to seem like sorcery if you're starting from 0 knowledge and jump right into some Jacob Collier video about microtonal hyperlydian negative functional harmony

I have an elementary understanding of reading music and of chords, time signatures, and keys. The thing that really blows my mind is how these superhumans bring the pieces together to make audio sex
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I've slowly been trying to figure out music theory for most of my life, by myself, no formal training. I think I've got the basics and intermediate concepts at this point.

And, I could be wrong, but I've discovered that it's absurdly simpler than it looks.

The real problem is that, nobody's writing good explanations of the fundamental concepts. When occasionally people do try, they're way too brief, and use way too much jargon, so the explanations are useless, and even intimidating.

I've thought hard about why people aren't explaining the fundamentals well, and I'm not sure. My current guess is this: music theory is just rules that help you write good music, right? ...But there's not just one way to write good music, so you always feel like you have to pick a subtopic, for example, "how to write music that sounds like ____ genre". And then, when you're writing that subtopic, you feel like you're allowed to use jargon, and then you skip fundamentals!

And, so, nobody ever explains the fundamentals!!

I've been working on a short book or maybe just a blog post, called "music theory for the uninitiated". But I'm scared to continue to work on it, because I'm scared of saying things that are 90% right, but 10% wrong. And so, I as well, am failing to explain the fundamentals =/
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i already wrote a blog post on that here. i'm sure that there are plenty of others out there, and tons of channels that do the same. or just look at a textbook
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What even is a bar lol
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