General Music Chat

What a thread on absolutely nothing.

Of course you take the guy who sounds like anything other than plastic.

Why would you ever cope with a guy who sounds bad when he plays?


Theory is nice, but if you still sound like mud, try teaching.

It's not nothing...ZXYZ is starting a loan company. I say that's something.

lol I see your lips moving but for the life of me I can't hear a word, whoever you are.

Its called the Capn Scott good 4 nuthin Loan Company. Take his car.. Pleez!!!

Sounds a little underhanded.

HAHA, Yeh..

At least i am aware that Van Halen is old news. LOL

Hey Ya'll be nice when referencing Eddie now. He will never be old news to me

lol Take them both.

If that's not an option, go with the self-taught person and teach him/her some theory if he's willing to learn. Just because you have a shiny-trimmed piece of paper doesn't make you a great musician. One of the most important aspects of musicianship is individuality and style. If the classically trained fellow sounds like a robot, and you don't want that kind of style (I can't imagine who would in this day and age, but on ne sais jamais!), then the choice is easy.

Dealing with a musician in a serious band that doesn't know theory when the other members do can be a big obstacle, but it's not impossible to overcome. I've done it before. Taking the extra time to work parts out beneficial in the long run anyway, and with programs around like Guitar Pro and Power Tab where you can read notation and tablature at the same time, it's getting easier to manage.

This is a no brainer ...

The self taught guy with heart hands down ...

I once auditioned for a band and the first thing outta the leaders mouth was if I knew theory and who I trained with ... I LMAO cause I have NO idea about theory and I trained alone or with friends that played ... I can't read a note of music but I have a ear actually 2 of those and I play with feelin' which I believe is more important then being technical ...

Needless to say I walked out on him ...

Back to the question ... the self taught, none music reading MUTT everytime !

On reading some of the responses to this thread, I'm a bit shocked at how little people value musical knowledge. One thing a lot of musicians need to get straight is that knowing some theory is not a bad thing. It is solely when it is used as the vehicle of one's musicianship that it becomes a problem.

Musical knowledge is a spectacular supplement to a musician's abilities, makes you more marketable to a lot of bands, AND helps you write, believe it or not. It's pretty annoying, and I think that my own comment may have been adding fuel to the fire. I did not mean to knock theory knowledge by my above statement, only that when that's all you know, it's simply just not enough.

I think there are a lot of musicians and groups who fall into a huge trap by scorning and scoffing at music theory. Not knowing theory and trying to write music is a lot like trying to do Newtonian physics without Calculus. It can be done, but not as well, quickly, or easily. The point is, without knowledge of the things that have been discovered before you, you have to figure them out yourself. Spending the time to figure these things out, then properly use them is something you can waste your time on, or you can learn about them, how someone used them centuries ago, and put your own spin on it. Then you can spend your musical "heart and soul" on making that perfect transition into the relative major from minor rather than racking your brains on which power chord to play next because you've already exhausted the I-V-vi-IV and its many variants.

Hello repressthecadence, I think you are probably misunderstanding at least a few of us. I don't think any serious musician is going to argue the fact that knowing as much theory as you can is an invalueable tool in original or cover music. Just as an example, I have spent the last 39 years, in one way or another learning as much about theory as I can find, and while I still don't know everything, with each passing day I know more than I did the day before. I have been pro. for 32 years playing in cover bands and original bands and a combo of both.
I beleive most people are saying they would rather play with someone that plays from the heart instead of someone that plays in a mechanical way irrigardless of weather they are degree'd in music or not.
I for one can watch a 40 peice orchestra play a very symphonic peice, and see some of those degree'd balding men play their hearts out, it is obvious that they are as us non degree'd musicians say Jammin, or on the other hand you can watch someone like Yanni Live At The Acropalis (one of my favs) and degree'd or not they are tearing it up man.
I think it is almost impossible to play music and be a serious musician without naturally learning a lot of or at least some theory.
Like my dear old pops used to say (he had a Bachelor of Arts degree) by the way, you still can attend the University Of Life

Alexander, if you are a person that is untrained but creative, and will be coming up with most of the initial song ideas, then I would take the trained guy.
This is because when you get stuck writing a song, he will have all sorts of ways to connect the dots for you. To get those problem songs to work.

If you expect equal input from all the band members, go with the person that is the most creative. Or that you feel brings the most 'life' to the group.

Hello repressthecadence, I think you are probably misunderstanding at least a few of us. I don't think any serious musician is going to argue the fact that knowing as much theory as you can is an invalueable tool in original or cover music. Just as an example, I have spent the last 39 years, in one way or another learning as much about theory as I can find, and while I still don't know everything, with each passing day I know more than I did the day before. I have been pro. for 32 years playing in cover bands and original bands and a combo of both.
I beleive most people are saying they would rather play with someone that plays from the heart instead of someone that plays in a mechanical way irrigardless of weather they are degree'd in music or not.
I for one can watch a 40 peice orchestra play a very symphonic peice, and see some of those degree'd balding men play their hearts out, it is obvious that they are as us non degree'd musicians say Jammin, or on the other hand you can watch someone like Yanni Live At The Acropalis (one of my favs) and degree'd or not they are tearing it up man.
I think it is almost impossible to play music and be a serious musician without naturally learning a lot of or at least some theory.
Like my dear old pops used to say (he had a Bachelor of Arts degree) by the way, you still can attend the University Of Life

Thanks for that. I couldn't agree more with this. I guess my fingers got a little trigger happy, because I've encountered some people who have seriously thought that way. Thanks for the clarification.

Ha Ha Ha Man thats easy. The educated musician would not have anything to do with my band.

I dunno man, I'm going to college for jazz sax right now and alot of these people play better than most people I have seen