Learning musical theory...?

Question

Basicly im just the average music (lyrics) lover, but with no education into actual musical theory, ie time signitures, bars and the alike...i wish to expand my knowledge and understand more the music, how its put together, analysed etc...any ideas other than taking a course?

Answer 1

Do you play an instument? Musical theory won't really be any use to you unless you can play something. It sounds as though you want to put your lyrics to music. To do that you will need to understand melody. I would start by learning some basic guitar or keyboard, and finding out about writing melodies. As others have said, you can find out a lot about music online, I would also take the music shop advice and grab some books.

Answer 2

A short course is most definitely your best way forward, the knowledge gained on a course specifically in the rudiments and theory of music will thus be remembered for life. You can even do grades. Other than that you could try taking up a musical instrument at a beginners level and see how far you get, again this is best done through a course at college or night classes in a local school.

Teaching yourself will not be easy even though there are many good books with accompanying CD.

You should also ask yourself how much you can afford to spend, private music lessons could be cheap or may cost an arm and a leg, as this depends on who the tutor is a student teaching for spare cash to clear student loans or a fully qualified individual.

Courses are good in that the cost is divided over a number of weeks and although you may have to pay up front they are generally less costly than a private tutor.

The other advantages to group classes is that you can learn from one another, make new friends and have some fun.

If you have a limited budget and can't really afford it, your area authority may run beginners courses under the lifelong learning banner in a school or library and these literally cost very little at all. The price of a booking fee equatable to ten cups of coffee.

Good luck.

Answer 3

I know you said 'other than taking a course', but a course may actually be the best way.

If you don't want to/can't attend a class, have a look at the OU course A214: Understanding Music: Elements, Techniques and Styles. Here's a link to the course details:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C02A214

Alternatively, you could try to buy the course materials from someone who has done the course by advertising in the OU magazine Sesame:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/sesame/

I can highly recommend the course; the materials are excellent and you cover a lot of ground, right from the real basics to fairly indepth analysis.

Answer 4

Music is more of a practical subject. You have to be tuaght by attending a course ecept if you are musical gifted. The teory of music is difficult to learn alone so you need guidance and a lot of practice. You will get these if you go for private lessons or go to a music school. Also you can buy some CDs and learn using them.

Answer 5

If you are not bothered about gaining a qualification in theory, get down to your local music shop and have a look at their book there are some really good ones about with practical exercise to do.

Also sounding a bit daft but look at the grade books aimed at children if you don't have any knowledge as these explain things really well!

HAVE FUN!!

Answer 6

If you want a relatively inexpensive way to understand guitar from your home, online guitar lessons certainly are a easy and clear decision but also for decades, Jamorama, https://tr.im/zsXGG is a huge front-runner in that industry, giving quality multimedia guitar teaching as possible obtain to your computer.
Jamorama offers a good choice of classes and is unquestionably a great choose for a beginning guitarist. Jamorama's video content is all in great HD quality, and their primary instructor, Mark McKenzie, does a best wishes protecting the basic principles within an easy-to-understand and spontaneous way.

Answer 7

These days you can find excellent free resources on the internet. You can even obtain past exam papers from university / college courses on the subject, together with syllabus containing topics for study.
If you are interested and motivated, you can formulate your own 'course' on the subject and you will find professional and expert help on almost every problem you are likely to encounter on the www and even more especially the usenet - have a look at all the alt.music.* groups on usenet!
good luck

Answer 8

What do you mean? Go to a college and take Music Theory....thats your best bet next to hiring Eric Clapton or something like that.