Quote:
Originally Posted by mr dave
playing music is not like playing a sport.
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True - mainly.
If you're in a band, then there's the element of team playing - and there's always the competitive element that keeps you trying to get better technically, improvisionally or as a songwriter.
Music is a means of communication - what you communicate is up to you.
If you want to communicate that the music you've written is devilishly hard to play, then why not.
There may be people that don't like it, but amazingly there are also people (often the same people) that don't like music that is too simple, too cheesey, or excessive in some other department.
There are even people who don't like AC/DC - can you believe that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr dave
song difficulty only matters if you're playing guitar hero or rockband.
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Depends entirely on what you're trying to do. If you want to write something difficult, then song difficulty matters
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr dave
theory only becomes really relevant if you're composing or a recital style performer.
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Theory is
essential - as you point out below;
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr dave
NO ONE starts off by being able to play songs from start to finish.
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Exactly.
You cannot actually play without theory. Theory is always not only relevant to music, but inseparable from it. Even if you deduced the theory yourself through many sessions of playing by ear.
What you're actually saying is that
in-depth theory study is only of use to an academic, which is self-evident.
Some people want to write academically slanted music, particularly metal guitarists - and some of those presumably even enoy it.
Music doesn't actually have to be fun - it's just a means of communication by organising sounds inside a time frame, exactly like speech.
Copying other people is the best way to learn, but the best way to communicate is to think for yourself, once you've spent some time inside the learning by imitation process.
Can you imagine what life would be like if everybody went around simply regurgitating what each other said? Hmm, maybe not too hard...
Play with the ideas, not the set order - rewrite the songs so they sound better, don't just keep trying to play the same old stuff - why re-invent the wheel?
Improvisation is the key to great musicianship, and theory is the key to great improvisation.