Ever sat down with your guitar, started noodling, and thought, *Why does everything I play sound the same?* Maybe you’ve nailed the basics—chords, scales, and a couple of killer solos—but when it comes to breaking new ground, you feel like you’re missing the secret ingredient. Well, friend, that secret ingredient is music theory.
Now, before you roll your eyes and think, “Shit, here comes another series of lectures designed to make me think like you do”—relax. Music theory isn’t about memorizing boring facts or turning your creativity into math class. It’s a practical toolkit that helps you understand the music you already love, so you can create your own more easily.
I hated theory, or at least the idea of it
I balked whenever theory was mentioned.
“Fuck that, I just want to rock”.
Anything that stood between me and that goal, I considered a threat. I didn’t need it, I was already rocking so I never stopped to explore even the most surface level of concepts of theory, because honestly – it scared me. There was language and jargon I didn’t understand. Diagrams that looked hella confusing, and people trying to teach it in a way that made me want to slap them.
That was my justification for not trying. It was just too confusing. It made me feel scared, insecure and somehow – less. Like it was undermining all the work I’d done so far.
I was 5 years into playing guitar but I hadn’t even begun to educate myself on the one thing that would have saved me sooo much time. Time figuring out my favourite songs, time trying to understand why they worked, time writing my own songs.
“I was 5 years into playing guitar but I hadn’t even begun to educate myself on the one thing that would have saved me sooo much time. ”
It would take another 2 years, and a few slow blink moments for me to begin my journey to actually learn the code behind the music – which is I think, a way better term than music theory.
In that two years, I noticed some things that affected my motivation to learn theory.
Teachers often alienate students by the way they explain music theory
The way music theory is often taught can feel like trying to learn astrophysics when all you wanted to do was look at the stars. For many guitarists, (certainly for me) the problem isn’t the theory itself—it’s how it’s presented.
WTF are you talkin about?
Take the jargon for example, if you hear terms that are unfamiliar to you and go unexplained, you immediately feel out of your depth and can’t go forward. And yet guitar teachers do it all the time!
Instead of saying something simple like, “This chord progression sounds good because it resolves naturally, it feels like it comes home and comes to rest”, a teacher might throw out terms like “diatonic harmony,” “secondary dominants,” or “plagal cadence.”
That shit triggers me. Does it you?
For a self-taught guitarist, an instructor using this kind of language feels more like a gatekeeper than a guide.
You forgot that a younger you didn’t know this
Too often, explanations come from a place of deep knowledge, as though the teacher has forgotten what it’s like to be a beginner. Imagine you’re trying to learn how to change a tire, but the person helping you starts talking about the inner workings of the engine. That’s what it feels like when someone jumps straight into explaining modes or advanced chord extensions before covering the basics. You’re left thinking, *I just wanted to know how to fix a flat, not build a car from scratch.*
Draw me a picture, but not like that
And then there are the diagrams. Oh, the diagrams. They often look like they were designed by MC Escher. The ones that really grind my gears are the fretboard diagrams that are entirely full with tiny numbers and symbols, and the scale charts showing every position. And the worst: the circle of fifths
Grrr! You ever heard of “bite-size pieces” muthafucker?
Instead of clarifying the concept, these visuals can make you feel like you’re staring at a puzzle you’ll never solve. For someone who already feels a little insecure about theory, it’s the quickest way to shut you down completely.
Clapton didn’t know theory
Ah, that ole chestnut. I never used this justification but I’ve heard it trotted out sooo many times. Citing greats like Jimi and Eric and how they did just fine without knowing this stuff.
But.
If you’ve read Clapton’s biography you’ll know he was surrounded by a community of musicians, some more advanced than him and jammed with many more. He would have picked things up. Especially from his older mentor John Mayall. He would have learnt what worked and why. Even if he didn’t know it was officially called theory.
And, Clapton was playing in bands and gigging 3 or 4 times a week, every week from an early age. That practical application in the real world, exposure to a huge range of talented musicians like Jeff Beck, Andy Summers, Steve Windwood who would have imparted their knowledge, and time on the road would have accelerated ole Slowhand’s grasp of the code behind music, fo sho!
“It’ll kill my creativity.”
Many guitarists fear that learning the rules of music will make their playing feel mechanical or box them into rigid patterns, stifling their natural flow.
I call bullshit on that one.
Did learning spelling and grammar, character development and story arc structure prevent you from writing awesome short stories in English class?
Nope.
Because these rules are a framework to focus your creativity, not the source of it.
“You need to know the rules so you can decide when to break them”
Following on from that thought.
My old art teacher once said “You need to know the rules so you can decide when to break them”. By this I think she meant that blindly stumbling into something that worked wasn’t a method to consistently produce good work. Without knowing the rules and why things work, you don’t have a way to reproduce success.
Learning music theory gives you a way to analyse something that already works, break it apart, understand it on a deeper level, then use the learnings to create your own cool thing.
And I think that’s what it comes down to: reproducible results.
I decided it was time to learn the code behind music – not music theory
Somewhere between reading blogs, justinguitar.com, watching YouTube videos and being in several bands I managed to piece together the basics, maybe even a little more than that. And to my surprise, most of it was old news that just required a title.
Oh, I already knew that. I just didn’t know what it was called
When I got into it, it turns out that most of it I already knew and recognised by ear or by by my knowledge of songs. “Oh yeah, its just like in that song [title] by [artist]”.
And more than that, it helped me write cool songs of my own. Before when I’d come up something cool – like a riff – I’d be blind as to where to go next. Often I’d try going from the riff into each and every chord up the fretboard until I found one that seemed to work.
What a waste of my time.
So, think of it like this: Music theory is a map. Without it, you can still wander around and stumble on cool stuff, but with it, you know exactly where to find the treasure. And let’s be honest—nobody wants to spend their entire guitar-playing life getting lost in the weeds of the fretboard.
Learning theory makes you aware of what you’re doing—and that awareness gives you more control.
Take, for example, a classic rock riff that gives you chills. Why does it work? What makes it feel powerful, or sad, or like you’re about to conquer the world? Music theory has the answers. It’s like being let in on a really good secret. You don’t have to know everything, but knowing a little can go a long way.
So, if you’ve ever thought, *I don’t need theory—I just play by feel,* let me challenge you. What if theory didn’t replace your feel but supercharged it? Because that’s exactly what it can do.