The Beatles- Music Theory?

Question to Steve Harris. Steve the Bass parts in a lot Iron Maidens songs are pretty complicated, do you have trouble playing them live?

Steve Harris: No I wrote them.

Pretty much sums it up.
 
Excellent video, excellent narrator. And this guy can explain the esoteric musical stuff to us non-formally trained mere mortals w/out getting too heady or boring. I found it fascinating since I had only heard the Beatles couldn't read music but didn't know these juicy tidbits as well.

In a perfect world, in my case- Had I learned music theory, no question I'd have a deeper appreciation of the infinite nuances of music.
And as with any musical knowledge I have acquired and assimilated-- it makes me more informed, a better musician and better drummer. It all works together.
 
johnwesley said:
What a bunch of BS. There's no way, absolutely no way a group of people that can't speak each others language well enough to have deep conversation, can't or won't read music, refuse to even think about time signature, arpeggios, major versus minor key orchestration, or how polyrhythmic variations affect the eating habits of the non aboriginal community can "magically" play music in a cohesive way. Either you're not being honest or there was something else going on prior to your group's playing together. AND you claim everyone swapped instruments? Are you crazy? What you claim is utterly impossible without years of formal training and even then many people would just end up quitting due to the extreme difficulty of understanding how music works. You can't do music without a degree, and that degree tells you/us at what level your music ability really is. Quit telling such tall tales. You're not fooling any of us. You have to be formally trained to play music. Much like Keith Richards.
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Good one John! They had formal training just like "Keef. For anyone interested, the most well known example of a self taught Aboriginal musician ( in Australia at least) Is an Aboriginal bloke Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Google him - outstanding.
 
basset52 said:
Good one John! They had formal training just like "Keef. For anyone interested, the most well known example of a self taught Aboriginal musician ( in Australia at least) Is an Aboriginal bloke Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Google him - outstanding.
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I will google. Thanks
 
Wow! ! Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu is one awesome dude. For you academics, music theorists, and "I need instruction" crowd, here's a guy that is just plain musical. Self taught and blind from birth. Maybe that's why he always played a guitar strung for a right hander but played it leftie. Check out the video below. I chose one most everyone can relate to, but You Tube the guy. His stuff is amazing.

 
I've read some posts here referring to reading music. While reading music obviously goes hand in hand with knowing theory, reading is not theory. To paraphrase a classical composer friend of mine, you can fully understand and apply music theory without knowing how to read at all.

I learned theory while playing guitar but never learned to read. I do regret this, simply because of how valuable a tool reading is. But my band mates (prog metal band) communicated our ideas and music just fine by simply knowing the theory. Like others have pointed out, music is a language; if someone says "go to the fridge and grab me a beer" they don't need to write it down for you.
 
It's similar to Morse Code. Everyone has probably seen the dits and dahs on a walkie talkie. You can see them. That is not at all how people who know Morse Code communicate it's a language. They aren't reading anything they hear it when they send and receive it.
 
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