#254: Music Theory Starts Here

If you came to me for a lesson and said you wanted to work on music theory, my first reaction would be to do my happy dance. I admit it - I am a theory geek. I love talking about the building blocks of music and exploring the way composers use them to create the kaleidoscopic variety of music we love to play. 

But after my happy dance, I would ask you this question: why do you want to learn music theory?  It’s not a test question; there is no wrong answer. But I have often found that harpists make assumptions about what theory knowledge will do for them, and those assumptions, if they aren’t completely wrong,  aren’t always on the mark.

Knowing more abut the inner workings of music, the nuts and bolts of it, is undoubtedly important for any musician. It is also certainly true that some elements of music theory are immediately applicable to our playing. Most harpists, for example, realize that if they understood more about how chords work, they would be able to learn their music more quickly, sight read more easily and memorize faster. That sounds like a superfood for your playing, and lots of harpists are ready, willing and eager to add that to their practice diet.

But before chords will make sense to you, before they will be really useful, before you can become fluent with them, you need to know your major and minor keys. You need to know them cold, not have to figure them out, just know them as well as you know your alphabet. This is a step that too many harpists fail to take. They try to jump right into learning about chords without the foundation that makes their construction and sequences inevitable and logical. 

So that’s where we are starting today. I want to be sure that whatever your goals are with music theory, you have the knowledge that everything else in our system of music springs from: scales and keys.  

One caveat - don’t think this is going to be basic baby stuff. I promise unless you’re a complete theory geek like me,  you’ll learn something today that you didn’t know before.

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Blog post Musical Understanding Starts with Key Signatures
• Podcast Episode 6: Minor Keys [A Scale of a Different Color]
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]

Looking for a transcript for this episode? Did you know that if you subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts you will have access to their transcripts of each episode?