One's involvement with music, regardless of how little, or how big, involves a variable amount of perception. Perception is the step before interpretation, since you have to actually hear the music and apprehend the music before you can interpret it. Interpretation in this context is defined very loosely, since interpretation can be as simple as nodding your head to the rhythm of the music. It's fairly important that you understand the variation of people's perception when you expose your music, since it helps you to understand your own work in the eyes of another.

Music theory is simply an intellectual explanation of what we perceive and interpret as music, not music itself. It's a common misconception that knowing theory will turn the 'claytons' musician with esteem problems into a fairly able tracker, but usually the problems don't originate from lack of theory knowledge.

What all musicians must understand, is that a conceptual view of music is far superior than any knowledge of written theory. Having a concept of 'what sounds good', and 'what sounds bad' is a handy attribute to develop, since understanding 'why' helps you to recreate quality and eliminate trash very quickly. Developing this skill is simply obtained through analysis of music which you understand as good music. A similar understanding of poor music would increase your ability to eliminate problems in your own. When listening to any music of any quality, force yourself to express in words the good and bad points about that song. Always dwell on why the good and bad points exist and apply it to your own tracking. Be as specific as possible, and always trust your ears.

Having the knowledge of theory to most musicians is used as a creative assistant more than an actual creative device. Certain genres, like classical music, really need a good musical knowledge because the original composers had extensive knowledge themselves which they expressed in their music. Certain styles of music, which were tailored by the intellectual (particularly 17th century) are pretty much impossible to replicate accurately without knowledge of the music from that particular period. There have probably been times where people have emulated the feel of post 18th century music pretty accurately, but the advantage of knowing the hows and whys of the music from that period rules supreme over talented perception.

What were dealing with here is are two sides of musical thinking. One side deals with music as an expression of sound, whereas the other side deals with its mathematical explanation. Understanding both sides contributes to the completion of a musician, but the function of theory rests on the shoulders of existing talent. It should be understood that theory gives you the notes, but talent gives you the magic, and it's safe to say that the magic matters more than the notes.

- Mick Rippon
Email: rip@hunterlink.net.au