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Theory on Tap: An Introduction
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This introduction is to explain the purpose of my proposed theory lessons.
Some of the lessons will be written by others, and this introduction really
only applies to my lessons, although I hope other teachers will strive for
consistency.
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I'm sure others on this list are more qualified than me to organize these
lessons, but they didn't volunteer (and I'm not quite sure why I did, other
than to get a better grasp on this stuff myself by writing about it.) Use
at your own risk; there's always that "delete" button.
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I hope these lessons will give stick players a basic grasp of some theory
concepts. I do not intend to cover everything you need to know, and I
strongly suggest you look into the bibliography below for further reading.
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These lessons will cover "Jazz Theory" as opposed to "Classical Theory" (or
in some circles, "Legit Theory") for one reason; it's all that I've
seriously studied. However, conversations with those who've studied both
lead me to conclude that Jazz Theory will be much more useful to the
average contemporary musician playing 20th century popular music, whether
it's jazz, rock, country, etc. (O.K., so maybe it's not that much help for
rap.)
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Some theory about theory; my music teacher in college stressed that theory
is *not* a rigid set of rules that must always be adhered to. Rather, it is
an organization of how things are already played. People probably played it
that way in the first place because they liked how it sounded, without much
knowledge of theory. It now sounds "correct" to us because we've heard it
enough times. If you keep playing it that way, it will continue to sound
correct. However, innovation in music comes only when players depart from
the standard way of doing things. If you know the rules, you always have
the choice of adhering to them, or breaking them. If you don't know the
rules, you can't make a conscious choice. Pianist Misha Mengelberg once
said he went to a conservatory to learn which rules he had to break. I
believe it is in the player's best interest to understand theory no matter
what he/she intends to do with it.
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On to Lesson 1!
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