Similar to Music theory. It’s not absolutely necessary to write good music, but understanding it allows you to be more purposeful in your writing and know why certain things work and when to break the “rules” for an effect.
Or art for that matter. One of my arts teachers kept saying that, in order to be able to paint the way he did, Picasso would have absolutely been able to paint completely realistic paintings.
I’m still gonna hold my grudge against my middle school art teacher. If we were painting an oak tree for example, she’d get pissed if you decided to add, say, an apple hanging off a branch. “It’s an oak tree, not an apple tree!”. Like I give a fuck, it’s my painting and I wanted an apple there, fuck off.
She also essentially called our entire class lazy and talentless once because none of us got selected as finalists for an art competition she signed us up for.
Well, I’d say, it’s only not strictly necessary for small-scale good music. I do think for an orchestra score (or a novel or a Sistine Chapel), you do need to know what you’re doing, because there’s so many variable parts that have to work together…
You don’t need to know what you’re doing, but it’s certainly a heck of a lot easier to understand why your harmony doesn’t work if you know what a tonic and a dominant and subdominant are. It saves you time and allows you to write more purposefully.
Similar to Music theory. It’s not absolutely necessary to write good music, but understanding it allows you to be more purposeful in your writing and know why certain things work and when to break the “rules” for an effect.
Or art for that matter. One of my arts teachers kept saying that, in order to be able to paint the way he did, Picasso would have absolutely been able to paint completely realistic paintings.
He was, just check his early work.
I’m still gonna hold my grudge against my middle school art teacher. If we were painting an oak tree for example, she’d get pissed if you decided to add, say, an apple hanging off a branch. “It’s an oak tree, not an apple tree!”. Like I give a fuck, it’s my painting and I wanted an apple there, fuck off.
She also essentially called our entire class lazy and talentless once because none of us got selected as finalists for an art competition she signed us up for.
Well, I’d say, it’s only not strictly necessary for small-scale good music. I do think for an orchestra score (or a novel or a Sistine Chapel), you do need to know what you’re doing, because there’s so many variable parts that have to work together…
You don’t need to know what you’re doing, but it’s certainly a heck of a lot easier to understand why your harmony doesn’t work if you know what a tonic and a dominant and subdominant are. It saves you time and allows you to write more purposefully.