Castle Paradox

[Artimus Bena]

Ok, whatever works. It's individual preference we're talking about, and perspective\perception are the most complicated things on the planet.
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[Jazz_Man]

I liken composition without knowing theory to driving a car without knowing how the engine runs. Yes, you can operate the car, but if it breaks down, you won't necessarily know how to fix it. (Maybe that's an odd analogy... in fact, I might be stealing that from someone)

Needless to say, I agree with the theory advocates. Also the comment about learning church modes and chromaticism.

Anyway, to answer the initial question:

mainly percussion, I sing a lot, I play a little piano, a little guitar, but my primary focus right now is composition; specifically, I'm working on a full length musical that will be performed by my college next spring as kind of a "senior project" for me. (It's in quotes because I'm in school for Vocal Ed, not for Composition, as I'd much rather be, but that's my grad school goal)

Along those lines, a lot of my musical influences consist of music theatre. I used to think highly of Andrew Lloyd Weber, but I've found many works I'd consider above and beyond him (Like Jason Robert Brown, Jonathan Larson, for example) but to go back to my classical roots, I'd say that Mendelsohnn, Schubert, Schumann, of course Beethoven and Mozart, all sorts of people are my influences. It's a shame to choose just one.

Oh, and hi all. I'm just popping back in occasionally to take breaks while I write this musical. (It's kind of my full time job right now...)

[Setu_Firestorm]

Good Lord, LongeBane! Please fix that Custom Title!

Concerning theory, it's just like any other art. Anyone can draw a picture, play a tune, paint a painting, or write a poem. There's absolutely nothing stopping anyone from doing those things. However, if you intend to immerse yourself in the form of art you choose, it helps to learn the fundamentals and mechanics of it so that you will know how to be more efficient in creating your pieces.

I kinda don't think you guys really understand how f***ing annoying it is to try to tell one of your band members what to and not to do for a song and have them be completely clueless to what you're saying considering that as a musician playing by ear/chords, they can sound fantastic.

That is why I strongly encourage theory to anyone who wishes to seriously call themselves a musician. Now, that's just my personal opinion; I don't expect everyone to agree.
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[Camdog]

Of course, theory isn't a set of hard and fast rules, but rather a set of guidelines based on what "sounds right" from a stylistic point of view. And, of course, those rules change depending on the style of music. That's why everyone flipped their shit when Monteverdi started throwing 7ths into his chords, even though that sounds pretty tame to our ears. And of course, there are completely different sets of rules for music theory, like music based on scales of 24 microtones instead of 12 semitones. Hell, Schoenberg just made up a totally new set of rules for his own style of music.

I guess what I'm trying to say about the theory/what sounds right argument is that music theory is just what sounds right. Lot's of great music has been made by people with no knowlege whatsoever about theory, especially folk stuff and popular music like blues and rock.

That said, I think a strong knowledge of theory makes it a lot easier to get the sound you want out of a piece, not to mention how much easier it is to talk to other musicians with good theory knowledge (as Setu mentioned). I highly reccommend it.

[djfenix]

I'm taking digital recording in school, so i need to have a strong music background. The main instruments i play are:

Piano
Organ (different but still the same, pretty much, heh)
Fiddle
Violin
Viola
Cello
Tenor and alto Saxamaphone (heh)
Trombone
Trumpet
(Man.. i gotta learn guitar someday...)

My biggest influence is my piano teacher, heh. He's a jazz musician, but he does other styles just as good as he does jazz.

Favourite scale is probably Blue's scale (formulae from initial note in tones is 1.5, 1.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1.5, 1.5... so C Blue would be C Eb F F# G Bb C). It's so stylistic, and open with using notes outside of the scale. Another favourite would be minor harmonic, heh (that is a rather popular scale)

[Me]

I play folk fiddle. That is where you take a major or minor scale, then accidently "lose" pieces of it and "find" them in other places in the scale. The same thing happens with the meter. It's fun.
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[jabbercat]

[Setu_Firestorm]

That's a pretty impressive span of instruments you play, Fenix. It must've taken a lot of time to learn to play them.
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