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PeteS:
Hi Boydie,

I did sort of expect that reaction from some members.

I can read music and did a number of theory exams in my youth, and I wouldn't be without that knowledge now.  I just feel that having that creative spark is the most important thing, without that you have very little to build on. 

For me, there are a few geniuses in the world who need little knowledge to create masterpieces.  For the rest of us, we need to grab as much knowledge as possible and use it to the best of our ability.  Just don't be stifled by it.

Theory on its own (as with much technical knowledge) is boring, it has to be bought to life in some way.  Take the teaching music.  If you teach in an old fashioned boring way, you will turn off most kids.  My youngest isn't inspired to play guitar yet but he can play a little.  He has had 3 teachers at school, the middle one fired him up and gave him a passion that I can't recreate.  When he moved on, Dan just turned off.  He will come back to it at some point but for now the guitar sits in the corner and gathers dust.  When inspired, he will pick it up and learn technique and knowledge with joy but for now, the approach taken is boring him.

I hope that in a few years he will be playing for fun and will have accumulated theory knowledge as well as practical, but for now, I just wish he would play.

Dazzathedrummer:
Hi,

I can highly recommend RSL's Music Theory grades - I've got grade 8 myself. I sat the exam quite recently (2016) because I wanted to write but didn't have enough knowledge of music to be able to create on my own - fine with a band, I would just hum a riff or a chord sequence and a guitarist or keyboard player could figure out what I was getting at, but on my own I didn't have much of a clue.
Now I happily right horn sections, string sections - anything really, nothing phases me.

It's helped me as now when I get the creative spark, I can hit the keyboard and get something down exactly as I imagined it rather than scratching my head and eventually loosing the idea.

Here's the link to RSL...
https://www.rslawards.com/rockschool/graded-exams/music-theory/

There are two theory books, the first one goes up to grade 5 and the second up to grade 8 ...and there are exercise books for each grade - you don't need to do the exams and you don't need to do them in sequence - It might be worth checking out the first theory book.

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