NO
When people use theory, they THINK about the rules and principles of music theory, then apply it to their fingers.
When people play by ear, they usually dont have to think as hard, They just play it almost naturaly.
Thats Just how I see it.
lol Naw man! I said "yall were splitting hairs" to the point that....you could say just about Anything had some theory "technically speaking".
Because, if you think about it, when people say "play by ear", they just mean, "never learned how to
read notation". Therefore, "playing be ear" = sight, sound, and
discovery. And when you
hear something, then you attempt to play it....once you finally learn it, you start to develop a personal
system.
For instance, you might know at certain places in a song that you can play "certain notes". You don't have a NAME for the notes, but the name might be
"the pentatonic scale". That name is a part of theory, and you had NO CLUE! You just knew it
sounded good!lol
So my whole point is: When T-block asked in a
hair splitting kinda way (lol) if you were sure that theory wasn't around FIRST, my example might be part of what he was referring to.
Of course i understand that theory is a
system that someone(s) gave thought to, in terms of figuring out how music works....but ear players on a much smaller, personal level, do the same thing! lol...But they haven't given it names, and nor can they normally take it as far as "currently known theory
along with eary", because
"There's no need to reinvent the wheel, when it's already been invented for you!" lol
This was a lighthearted response to a post. I encourage ALL musicians to learn a certain level of theory. Because as i said previously somewhere: "theory & eary" work together as a TEAM! One lifts the other, and the other lifts the one. And however much you already know by ear, the theory will only
"upgrade" it, and help you get to that next level.
