A teaspoon of theory and technique can give you a ton of expressive freedom!

The term music theory is one that has great polarizing effects on musicians. The two camps are pretty easy to identify: “I’ve been working on a lot of harmonic minor arpeggios and sweep picking techniques” and “I don’t bother with music theory, I don’t want it to mess up my playing.” I cannot really be assigned to either camp (honestly, my eyes roll when I hear people talking like this)…but the second statement probably has more inherent truth to it than the first one has value. If you don’t take time to at least become an accomplished Freshman in terms of your understanding of music theory, it’ll just confuse you and demoralize some of the positive steps you’ve already taken. Most of us took our first step, learned to swim, and learned to ride a bike, hey, you can do it. Chances are quite good that you know more about simple theory than you think you do. Do, a deer, a female deer… Read on »