I don’t understand music
For someone who has been writing about music for over twenty years it might be a strange thing to admit, but I don’t understand music. Not really, anyway. If I’m listening to a piece of music, I won’t be able to tell you which notes or chords are being played. I’ll have limited success even telling you which instruments are being played beyond the obvious. I certainly won’t be able to tell you what time signature it’s in, what’s going on with the harmonies, or anything else to do with music theory.
My wife, who actually does understand music theory, occasionally, and patiently, tries to explain some of these things to me, and I sense it’s a frustrating experience for her. She can tell that a particular note is a C, and the difference between 3/4 time and 6/8 time, but I can’t. I’m not being deliberately obtuse (on these occasions), I just genuinely don’t get it.
I sometimes wish I’d learnt more about music in my school days, having only taken music lessons for the absolute minimum amount of time possible, and never having learnt anything more complicated than playing Three Blind Mice on a recorder. This was mainly through lack of patience, but also through embarrassment about performing in front of people. I’m not sure how much it would have helped, as it just doesn’t come naturally to me, although still intend to try and learn an instrument to some basic level of competence at some point in my life. A bit more knowledge of music theory might have been nice though.
I have been listening to an excellent podcast called A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, which as well as explaining the historical and social context of each song, also gets into music theory, explaining why a particular song works, and why it is distinctive and important. It makes sense when I’m listening, but it doesn’t stick, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to apply my learning to other songs. I’ve also read David Byrne’s ‘How Music Works’ and honestly it’s the bits on how an album is financed that stuck with me more than anything else, perhaps because my day job is as an accountant.
I may never get it, but perhaps it doesn’t matter. I understand how music makes me feel, which is the most important thing, even if I don’t understand how it was made. Do I need to understand how the internal combustion engine works to enjoy driving? That’s actually not a great example, as it would probably be quite useful to understand how a car works, and I hate driving, but you take my general point. Sometimes I think I would get more out of music if I understood more of what was going on, sometimes I think I would enjoy it less if I was constantly thinking about how it was put together whilst I was listening.
Ultimately, I think, it doesn’t matter. It certainly hasn’t prevented me being deeply in love with music these last thirty+ years, and I’m not sure I could get much more pleasure out of music than I already do. I think there are plenty of musicians and songwriters who wouldn’t be able to explain, in terms of music theory, why their music sounds the way it does, but it doesn’t stop it being wonderful. When I write about music I’ll continue to write about the way it makes me feel, the reasons it matters to me, the reasons I think it’s important. And if I have to explain how it go to be that way, I’ll just say that it’s magic, To me it might as well be, and in some sense, maybe it is.
Originally published at http://markjwray.com on September 6, 2024.
