Do you really need music theory for Electronic Music?
Short answer: YES
This is a topic that creates a lot of discussion among electronic (and not only) musicians, composers, and producers. The same thing goes for almost every kind of art, like filmmaking, photography, painting, etc.
So today, we are going to go through all the possible scenarios and whether musical education is important for you as a music producer. We are going to focus on Electronic music but all these apply to many more genres.
So what is music in the first place?
“Music is the art of arranging sounds in time through the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.”
Melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre are the essential parts of a music piece. There is no music without them. Ok, you can afford not to have harmony, but that would make your music sound too simple and therefore kinda boring.
So how do modern musicians get away without knowing the theory behind the core elements of music? How do they write widely successful songs without knowing some basic rules about composing music?
Well, the answer can be pretty much summed up to one word. Technology.
Technological advancements enable us to create music faster and easier than ever before. You can now have a whole recording studio in the corner of your living room and create multi-platinum hit songs without leaving your apartment. The music-making process has become so much easier when DAWs became accessible to the masses and they keep on progressing day after day to make our lives as musicians simpler and more efficient.
But how does that replaces the need for music theory and training?
You can now draw melodies and chords on a MIDI track in your DAW with no need of actually knowing how to play an instrument. And due to plugins, you can then play those melodies with any sound imaginable. It can be a piano, a synth, a guitar, you name it.
For rhythm, you can click on a drum rack and create perfectly quantized beats in no time.
You have an abundance of different sounds and timbres you can experiment with to find the ideal sound for your song.
There are a lot of MIDI packs with pre-made melodies and chord sequences that you can download and use for your productions. By the way, I believe that using these kinds of MIDI packs is awful. Making music is just writing melodies and chords progressions and if you just buy a chord progression and a melody, what that will make you?
And if you want to play music with a MIDI keyboard there are lots of tools to help you play in tune and in time.
A great example would be the Scale plugin in Ableton Live. You set the scale of your choice and you cannot play an out-of-scale note.
There are also awesome plugins like Scaler 2 by Plugin Boutique that will take your melody-writing game to the next level!
Using Arpeggiators will help you play almost unplayable melodies with a click of a button
Lastly, music gear manufacturers have made lots of hardware sequencers you can use to write melodies and even chords fast. From the most basic to the super-advanced, sequencers are a great way to get inspired when you are struggling with melodies and lead lines.
Having all those great tools, then why do I need music theory?
The answer is again, very simple. Tools are just tools. And making art is so much more than throwing a bunch of melodies and chords around to make a song.
We must remember that music is exactly like a language. Making music without knowing the fundamentals and some basic theory is like trying to write a novel in a foreign language using Google Translate. And just in verbal communication, without some kind of theory training, you may be able to communicate but you won’t be able to express yourself exactly the way you want to.
So, while having all the tools available is absolutely great, tools like the ones mentioned above won’t be enough in the long run. You will heavily rely on them and in the so-called happy accidents when you’re making music instead of having a clear vision and intention, and the knowledge to materialize it into music.
What are the main benefits of understanding music theory (at least the basics)?
Creative freedom. As mentioned above, you won’t be chained to your tools and shortcuts. You will be able to translate a thought in your mind into music and that feeling is amazing
Flexibility. Knowledge is power. When you’re stuck or feeling uninspired, you can go back to your knowledge and solve problems. It’s almost impossible to write an interesting bridge to your song if you cannot relate that to your chorus and verses. Knowing these musical relations will spark ideas fast and you will go through the hard parts of composing much easier.
Expressiveness. I studied music in my late 20s. Before that, I was constantly hitting a brick wall as I was writing songs. I simply could not unlock the right doors and move my music forward and where I wanted it to go. The more experienced you are with these concepts, the easier is to express yourself exactly the way you want. It is like trying to find the right word in an argument. If you don’t speak the language is way more difficult.
Using the tools in a better way. As we said, all music gear (hardware or software) are tools. When you free yourself of the struggle to write melodies and harmonies, you will be able to take your tools and use them to a whole new level. You can still use a chord generator, but this time you won’t just press random keys until the perfect progression appears. Your experiments will be much more focused and intentional.
Longevity. Being completely untrained in theory won’t get going for a long time. You will quickly run out of ideas, no more happy accidents will happen, and you’ll end up looking at a computer screen with no way around it.
Complexity. Writing Electronic music may seem “easy“ but trust me, it’s not. With not the right amount of harmony and a bit of complexity to your composition, your music will be boring or at least too plain. Most of the time, listeners won’t be able to tell if a song is complex enough but they will know if a song it’s self-repeating and not interesting at all.
In conclusion, music theory is important. Don’t be fooled you can bypass everything and go where you want to go if you don’t put in the effort. Starting out will be daunting and tiring but once you start to see the results you will know that you made the right choice. There are no shortcuts to anything. So, work hard, train yourself and then nothing will stop you!
Some great videos about music theory and electronic music for starters:
Rea Means Recording - A mostly thorough guide to learning electronic music production
Andrew Huang - Learn music theory in half an hour
