He never learned the first thing about music

[Undertoad]

"I didn't and still don't know... an F# from a chocolate donut."

So said the great Bill Withers, who wrote "Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean on Me", "Lovely Day" and "Just the Two of Us".

Wikipedia says

Withers worked assembling toilets for Boeing 747's, while recording demo tapes he shopped around and performing in the juke joints during the night. When he debuted on the music scene with "Ain't No Sunshine" he refused to give up his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry and that he was still a novice compared to other working acts like The Temptations or Sammy Davis, Jr.

And he was right - but if you have two mega-hits, you're rich, and with 5-6 under his belt he's surely as well-off as he deserves to be, for writing such lean but memorable songs.

The guy never learned the most basic music theory. He simply wrote songs. Great ones.

You have to wonder why anybody learns theory, if "Lean on Me" doesn't require it.

[lumberjim]

I've been trying to tell you and flint that for a while. feel it, motherfucker.

[elSicomoro]

I know scales and music theory, but I'm not very technical. When I hang out with my musician friends and they talk shop, I totally glaze over.

[Undertoad]

I don't know much. I know rhythm theory from my days playing drums. I can find a few notes from time to time.

[Perry Winkle]

I think my sig applies to this...

[limey]

I think that a lot of the point of learning music theory is to enable you to communicate with other musicians - whether it's to write down a tune and harmonisation to share with people who are not present, or to identify where to go back to in a rehearsal. Being able to create a great melody and devise harmony for it (on a guitar, say) doesn't necessarily require knowledge of the theory behind it, IMHO; just as knowing all the theory on earth doesn't necessarily mean you'll write great tunes.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

I've been trying to tell you and flint that for a while. feel it, motherfucker.

But what if you "feel it" but you can't play it. A lack of technique can prevent you from following your creative urges. You end up only playing the things you already know how to play, forcing you down the same pathways your hands are familiar with, reinforcing the same boring patterns ad nauseum. Which, if you have cool ideas and are fine with what you already know, is fine, and to be fair is vastly preferable to the alternative, which is simply playing scales and rudiments like a robot.

What I advocate is somewhere in the middle; to use moderation. Play what you enjoy playing, explore in the direction that interests you. But, when you come up against something you don't know how to do, you have two choices: #1 spend some time learning the mechanics of what makes that thing work, or #2 just give up, and settle for having that limitation. If you're ever at a gig that calls for that, you'll just have to do something else.

The entire reason for drilling yourself on different techniques is to give yourself the freedom to be able to just "feel it" - and when you do "feel it" you will be able to actually PLAY IT. It's better to know more than you need to know than it is to know less than you need to know.

Having less technique makes you less creative. You're not "feeling" it, you're just doing the only couple of things you know how to do.

[smoothmoniker]

Bill Withers may not have known any music theory, but Booker T. Jones, the producer, arranger, and keyboardist on that album, sure as hell did. He was a classically trained composer, in addition to being a bad-ass soul player.

Anytime you hear an artist reveling in their ignorance, take a close look at who is sitting at their right hand.

[dar512]

I think it depends on your needs. If you're playing by yourself or in a small group, you can just feel it. However, the larger the group, the more theory you need to understand the music and how to coordinate with the rest of the group. By the time you get to large orchestras, feeling it is a matter of nuance. There's not a lot of room for winging it.

Even in small groups, you might need a mastery of music theory. If you're playing jazz in Chicago and the vocalist or the leader calls for a tune in Ab that is normally played in Bb, then you'd better have a solid theory foundation.

I'm not there ... yet.