Music theory... ack!
Aaaaugh! My brother is going to drive me insane.
He plays the guitar. He's completely self-taught, having started a year or two ago using my guitar that I didn't play real often (because I've never taken the time to get good at it). He's done pretty well with it, honestly. The problem is, he learns his music theory from the internet, and then, when he doesn't "get it", he comes and asks me. (I am a music major, after all... it's my business to know this stuff.) But he overthinks it way too much. For instance, he's decided that all the different scales and keys are stupid, because they're all the same notes anyways, just with a different starting point. (Like, for instance, C major and A minor). I try to explain to him that yes, they are the same notes, but the notes have different functions in the different keys and the chords are different. If your piece in in C major, you're probably using predominantly major chords (I-IV-V), and if your piece is in A minor, you're probably using a lot of minor chords (i-iv-v... we won't go into harmonic minor with the raised 7th tone to give you V). He still doesn't see why it makes sense, and denounces music theory as completely illogical. He also doesn't see what the point of enharmonic notes is, and why you can have a b-flat and a-sharp when they're really the exact same note. (I didn't mention double flats/sharps... I really didn't want to hear another diatribe.) He's decided that you should just use all sharps or all flats. I keep trying to explain why these things make sense, but he doesn't really listen... he's convinced that he's smarter than anyone who's actually studied music theory properly. I tried to tell him that this stuff really does make sense... he should save his vitriol for the really weird stuff, instead of wasting it all on innocent key signatures and scales. I can't find a way to explain it to him that will satisfy his overly-logical way of looking at it. Bah. I need to sic my music theory teacher on him.
He plays the guitar. He's completely self-taught, having started a year or two ago using my guitar that I didn't play real often (because I've never taken the time to get good at it). He's done pretty well with it, honestly. The problem is, he learns his music theory from the internet, and then, when he doesn't "get it", he comes and asks me. (I am a music major, after all... it's my business to know this stuff.) But he overthinks it way too much. For instance, he's decided that all the different scales and keys are stupid, because they're all the same notes anyways, just with a different starting point. (Like, for instance, C major and A minor). I try to explain to him that yes, they are the same notes, but the notes have different functions in the different keys and the chords are different. If your piece in in C major, you're probably using predominantly major chords (I-IV-V), and if your piece is in A minor, you're probably using a lot of minor chords (i-iv-v... we won't go into harmonic minor with the raised 7th tone to give you V). He still doesn't see why it makes sense, and denounces music theory as completely illogical. He also doesn't see what the point of enharmonic notes is, and why you can have a b-flat and a-sharp when they're really the exact same note. (I didn't mention double flats/sharps... I really didn't want to hear another diatribe.) He's decided that you should just use all sharps or all flats. I keep trying to explain why these things make sense, but he doesn't really listen... he's convinced that he's smarter than anyone who's actually studied music theory properly. I tried to tell him that this stuff really does make sense... he should save his vitriol for the really weird stuff, instead of wasting it all on innocent key signatures and scales. I can't find a way to explain it to him that will satisfy his overly-logical way of looking at it. Bah. I need to sic my music theory teacher on him.