Re-Beginning the Guitar Part 3 – Need to Know

Whether you’re “re-beginning” the guitar, that is, taking it up again after starting out once (or many times) before, or just starting out for the very first time, the question of music theory – just how much should you know or need to know before playing – is always going to come up. As it did in this recent email:

David:
As I am progressing through my guitar re-beginning one big question pops up. There are many guitar instructor types who would have you cast theory aside and just pick strings but I am the type of individual that believes if one can understand and conceptualize the road to understanding and success is much smoother. As I move forward I realize I do not have a grasp on the theory that applies to the instrument I am playing or music theory in general.

So as I continue with the learning process, and it is going quite well, I wonder should I have a thorough understanding of theory before I dive into the instrument or is the reverse true? I am betting it is a combination and a progression of both but I would like to hear your feedback on the subject.

The first aspect of this question that needs to be addressed is more about perception. Put as simply as possible, it’s impossible to play music without music theory being there. It’s like speaking without spelling or grammar. You may not know all the rules, you may not even know that the rules even exist as you’re just interested in communicating. But that doesn’t mean that the rules don’t exist. You simply don’t know they exist or you do but you just aren’t aware of what you do know.

Music theory is not about how to create music. It’s about why and how things work musically. When you play an Em chord on your guitar, you’re using music theory whether you know it or not because your fingers are placed in order to play the precise notes of that chord. You obviously aren’t making that connection when you just start out and there’s really no reason you should. But not knowing that doesn’t mean you aren’t using music theory.

So the first thing you have to do is not be of one of the many incredibly wasteful “either/or” mindsets (like “tab vs. notation” or “picks vs. fingers”) that guitarists tend to fall prey to more often than just about anyone. You don’t and can’t play music without music theory being a part of the process. You may decide to actively denounce it but it’s still there. So do yourself a favor and get over thinking that music theory makes you less of a guitarist or less of a creative person. It’s truly a waste of your time and energy.

The next thing to realize is that while music theory is an important part of learning, especially if you want to grow and be creative when it comes to your playing, it’s not going to be at all helpful if you don’t play. Again, this seems incredibly obvious but some guitarists will approach playing with the idea that if they understand everything first, then they will magically be able to play better. That’s definitely not the case. Knowing the notes of an Em chord will not make it easier for you to switch from an Em to a G or a C or to whatever chord should happen to come next in whatever song or exercise you’re playing. Physically practicing the chord changes over and over and over and over and over again is the only way for that to happen.

As a beginner (or re-beginner) your first priority should be to play your guitar. After all, being able to play the guitar is why one takes up it up in the first place! But that doesn’t mean that somewhere in the process you can’t be learning basic bits of music theory to help you develop even further at some point down the road. Theory is what will allow you to understand making different chord voicings, to figure out how play barre chords anywhere on the neck, to substitute an Cmaj7 chord played instead of the C that the tab you found at some online site insists is the actual chord of a song, to make a fairly good guess that the E7chord you’re playing (in a song you’ve never played before) is likely to be followed by an A or Am.

To make this even simpler, think this way – you need both your mind and your fingers in order to play. You fingers handle the technique and your mind handles the theory. It’s not an “either / or” situation and trying to make it into one will not help you progress. You have to have both apsects going for you.

Deal with your fingers first. As has been mentioned in numerous articles on Guitar Noise, your fingers don’t really do anything like playing the guitar except when they are playing the guitar. Your mind, however, is used to working all the time. If anything, you should look at theory as a way to practice guitar when you don’t have a guitar at hand (which is a lot of the time!). We’ll cover that more in Part 4.

Right now, though, let’s also address reading music notation since that also tends to go hand in hand with the arguments both for and against learning theory. And it just so happens that I’ve gotten an incredible timely email about this topic, too!

David:

When you publish your next lesson on “Re- Beginning the Guitar,” can you write a short paragraph on this question: How important is it to learn how to read music if you want to learn how to play guitar?

Recently I sign up for guitar lessons at a adult education class held at our local school. Even though I’ve been playing for a couple of years, I was told I couldn’t take the class because I couldn’t read music.

I told the teacher this is nonsense and took out my guitar and played “Julia” (which Guitar Noise helped me learn, by the way). I was told I played very well but he stuck to his guns saying all my students must know how to read music to take this class. After this statement 90% of the class walked out and he was left with only a few students.

I’m 58 years old. I don’t want to the next guitar hero or tour the world; I just want to have fun.

Thank you for your time……

First off, let me just address this specific case and say that this teacher should have made the necessity of reading music a prerequisite for this class particular class. WIthout knowing the syllabus or the goals of this class, I cannot say why reading music would be necessary, but the teacher should certainly know and should also make that clear to people ahead of time. Most group classes, unless they are ensembles working on specific arrangements of specific songs, will require students to know how to read music.

Unfortunately, reading music is another one of those areas that turns into a very wasteful “either / or” scenario and it’s not helped by the fact that some people say that they “can’t” read music when what they honestly mean is that they can’t be bothered to learn how to. Reading music, just like playing music, is a matter of practice and repetition and it’s actually a lot easier than anyone thinks. Most adults who give themselves fifteen to thirty minutes a day for the task become decent music readers in less than two months.

The biggest advantage to reading music, is that you learn to read rhythms as well as notes. And being able to read rhythms totally frees you from wondering how to strum, as you can find out in our article called Turning Notes into Strokes. Whatever you may think about notation, the ability to strum confidently and accurately should more than make up for the seeming uncoolness of knowing what a dotted quarter note means.

For most guitarists, life without note reading is business as usual. There are all sorts of arguments both for and against but until you personally make the decision to become a person who sees the wisdom in saying “yes” when given an either or choice, you may not ever see that your guitar life was any different for not knowing how to read. Reading notation is certainly not essential to the hobbyist (although, again, it will certainly help you improve your playing), but if it’s your goal to make some sort of a living playing music, you should truly consider making the effort to learn.

Okay, that’s the chatty part of this discussion. Next time out we’ll expore these ideas by applying practical application.

Until then, play well and play often.

And, as always,

Peace