How do players who know "nothing" about theory get it so musically correct?

[kaleb]

s

I can't speak for Kaleb but to truly appreciate Zappa you have to get the subtle irony of his lyrics and the sophistication of his complex music.

Knowledge of music theory helps in listening to his music which puts a lot of demands on the listener. Lots of people that think that guys like Charlie Parker are just playing random notes just do not understand what he is doing. Some knowledge of music theory is necessary to "get it".

 

Rock bands like AC/DC play a relatively simple form of music. Easy to understand with a catchy beat and hooks galore. I love that stuff too. Fun to listen to or party to. Makes almost no demands on the listener.

 

It's all good but the more you understand the more music you can enjoy.

 

In my eyes, Frank Zappa was a musical genius. Lyric-wise, his songs were comedic and smart at the same time. Far from corny. It's odd, and that's why the critics don't get it, but I guy like me likes that kind of stuff. It's like Monty Python sophisticated humor with complex music.

 

I have said it here before, but I would not be the player I am today if it weren't for AC/DC and Malcolm Young's riffs. Some people criticize them for not changing at all, but I think that's good. They found their niche, and they know it's what they do best. They never did disco in the 70s (like some bands), hair metal and power ballads in the 80s (like some bands), or "grunge" in the 90s (like some bands). That being said, I would love to hear them do a straight heavy blues album.

 

It is simple music for sure, but it's not corny cock rock (like KISS). Bon Scott's lyrics were/are great and easy to understand at the same time (in other words, they can resonate with anyone but they don't sound like they were written by a 14-year old). And any crowd will like it if your band plays an AC/DC tune. My band doing "Dirty Deeds" has made the joint jump on more than one occasion.

[Sgt.]

My one university level music course was the one where I wrote just for the heck of it an atonal piano piece that actually was played in class.

 

I got a C for the semester.

 

A year later I saw one of the teachers, a great musician who was at the time an artist in residence as well. We talked a while and he told me how great it had been to have me as a student because I'd learned more than several students concurrently.

 

"Thanks for the C," I responded with a grin so he'd know I was neither angry nor taking it personally.

 

"Well, you just didn't follow the curriculum," he said.

 

Alas, perhaps that's the story of my life in a nutshell.

 

m

 

 

I remember taking 'The Physics of Acoustics' in college as my only music course (and a $100. text book!) and finding it's experiments fascinating. You actually have to be able to read music to study it at a college level (I cannot), duh! Not the actual mathematics (BTW I never took any math classes either lol), who cares about that, but the phenomenon, things such as the Doepler affect, and why sound travels faster or slower according to temperature and environmental changes, such as humidity. Guitars stay in tune at room temperature. The experiments demonstrated traveling sound waves and such things, really neat! The pitch of A is so because it occillates, like a wavy line, 440 times per second. Things like peripheral topics can really spark excitement in your musical universe ... why do such things happen? There's real answers! I learned a lot about the biology of the guitar, for example, the preferred guitar woods no longer available for harvest (Sitka spruce) and where it only grows in a specific region. Fascinating. There are all sorts of paths that contribute to the musical universe besides actual music classes. The science behind music bridged a gap between real phenomenon and creative endeavour (if you thought music was all a creative endeavour).

[RaysEpiphone]

I went through a few course's in recording school that dealt with acoustics's and music and the applications involved in sound, mostly covering energy, dynamic's and time and how they work within the environment and the gear that is used to archive/modify sound.