My Night with Rock and Roll

I play bass, and have for eight years now. It seems strange saying that because I still consider myself a beginner. I play a lot like a beginner as well. I have learned my fare share of music theory. I know where the notes are, and I can readily do runs up and down one pattern of the major scale. Basically I memorized that pattern, and would have trouble picking out the notes with any other pattern. That's the problem; on the bass there are any number of patterns for the major scale. On the guitar the pattern is even more complicated.

I guess I'm more of a songwriter than a bassist.

I've gotten pretty good with lyrics over the years. There was a time when I was writing and recording a song a day. So I'm a living testament that you don't need to know all about music theory to jam on tunes, but I've come across people who are even greater examples of this.

My last song so impressed my neighbor, who is a drummer, he immediately asked for a recording so that he could conjure up a drum line for it. He invited me over for a jam session, and also a friend of his, who just happens to be a guitarist. My neighbor's friend was very good. He wasn't the best guitarist I've ever seen, but he was a far greater musician than I am. We fooled around for a while before moving onto my new song.

After we'd jammed on the song a for fifteen minuets, this guitar guru asked me what fret on the neck did my riff begin on. I told him it began on a "b" note. That was when he told me, "I don't know where the 'b' is."

I was flabbergasted, but I tried to play it off. I'm not sure how successful I was with that, but we went onto other things that night. Eventually the night ended and we went our separate ways. Still, I can't get it out of my head how talented this guitarist, who had not an ounce of knowledge about music theory, really was. I can only imagine how good he will become when finally he puts down his collection of guitar tab, and learns music theory.

I'm not a strong pusher for music theory, but I can't deny the usefulness of it. The point of this article is just to show that it is not essential in rock music. Music theory can be a constraining set of rules for artists who let it be. That's why the music industry needs its geniuses, to look at it without limits. Playing rock is more about feeling, than it is about adhering to some rigid set of rules. A good musician can hear the sounds, and play them well.

Key structure, and scales...the guitarist I played with didn't need to know all of that. Sure, he's learned several famous tunes with tab, but he also showed his skill in improvisation. I wrote no tab for my song. I knew the notes only because I wrote the tune, but the guitarist played better than I did, though he had less knowledge of music theory.