How Important is Music Theory in EDM Production?

Is it necessary to learn music theory if you want to make electronic music?

Most producers avoid it because it sounds boring. They want to get on with actually producing music.

But what if music theory could help you make more unique and memorable songs?

What if it could help you achieve a more unique sound?

And what if it could help you start and finish songs much faster?

In this article, we’ll answer these questions and dive into just how important music theory is.

Let’s dive in.

But first, one of the important foundations of music theory is chord progressions. Everything else – melody, rhythm etc. – can be achieved once you have a solid progression going.

But chords are hard to write, and can be extremely confusing.

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Asking Reddit

I posted a Reddit thread asking for people’s opinions on the importance of music theory in electronic dance music production.

The majority of responses concluded that learning theory was important, but not necessary.

“Anyone who knows music theory but adheres to it so strictly that they allow it to stifle their curiosity is a fool. Anyone who wants to create music and avoids or refuses to try learning music theory is also a fool.”

terist

Some producers think that learning theory will make them less creative.

This is rarely the case, unless they adhere to it strictly like Terist says.

Here’s why:

  1. Music theory is a toolbox. If you know how to use the tools well, you can achieve far more than you can without the tools.
  2. Knowing what’s possible with your toolbox, you can think more creatively. You know how to make a certain style or sound that you might not know how to achieve without theory knowledge.
  3. Music theory provides constraints that enhance creativity.

“It’s absolutely essential you understand just a little music theory, even if you don’t want to study it in depth.

When I’m making music with other people, it drives me nuts when they don’t know what’s going on when I say, “the song is in D minor” or, “the major 7th shouldn’t be in this chord, try this note instead”.

It makes it so much harder to work on music with them and be productive. I gotta sit around and let them dick around until they find the riff. I still play by ear and encourage my bandmates to as well, but I also know all the words that go along with what I’m playing by ear so I can effectively communicate with them.

The problem being they’re all trying to figure out a part that sounds good to them, but when everyone in the band is doing that, there may be one note in each part that’s clashing with another instrument, or with my vocal melody. And nobody realizes it until we record a demo, and I say “the bass is a whole step too low here, it’s clashing with the vocals”, and they all stare at me like I’m speaking French.

If you’re only ever making music alone in your bedroom or studio, it’s not 100% essential, but any theory you learn will help you work more effectively.

If you start working with others, it’s absolutely necessary. You’ve either gotta be able to read music, or speak it to make it in a group, or it’ll take you 5 times as long to come up with anything.”

LavaLamps

Music theory is incredibly useful when collaborating with other artists.

Imagine you’re working with a producer you look up to, and they ask you ‘what key is your bassline in?’ and you simply shrug. Not a good look.

Here’s another response:

“One common misconception about music theory is that it is a set of rules. It’s not. It’s a set of descriptions.

Music theory does not exist to create boundaries for what music can and cannot sound like, it exists to describe the music the people have made and try and describe why something sounds good, or bad, or happy, scary, haunting, bouncy, etc. So it’s less of a GPS, and more of a map.

Music theory has done it’s best to lay out all the different paths you can take through music, and while there are of course some highways that you know most people will take, there are also always options to take a more scenic route, and hell, if you really are some kind of prodigy, then you can go forge your own path, and somebody will have to update the map.”

Dionysus

I have nothing to add to this. Thank you Dionysus for this great comment!

“It seems visual artists have little problem with color theory, photographers acknowledge composition and exposure. I don’t think any musical artist benefits from staying ignorant to intervals and the patterns they form.

The danger, IMHO, is that popular music has really settled into knowing what it wants harmonically. When you learn music theory very little of it is modern. You teach an EDM producer the pentatonic scale and minor chord and they are pretty much good to go.

The other danger, which I feel is very real, is that you get deep into theory, and you start to really love the structure of music. You start chasing deeper and deeper connections within the notes and abandon pleasing the public. The same way the best photographers and painters work simply cannot be enjoyed casually. “

gatortronic

This is something that could be talked about for hours. Listening to most modern music it can be easy to question the actual importance of music theory, “This song only contains one note!”

While the need for musical composition skill lacks in some particular EDM genres, it doesn’t mean that it renders theory unimportant. Music theory goes beyond simple things such as building a chord progression, it contains a huge amount of information that will, in my opinion, help you whichever genre you produce.

The last paragraph is also a very interesting struggle. Some of you may have noticed that you don’t enjoy production as much as you used to. This could be due to your increased knowledge in theory and technical concepts, and at the end of the day I think it’s about mindset.

If you open up your DAW expecting to make a ‘perfect’ song, then you’re probably going to be disappointed. Art is never finished.

All in all, I think that music theory despite being difficult to learn for some, is incredibly helpful. 

Music Theory Resources

If you’re looking to learn music theory, check out some of these:

New Producer?

Music theory is only one of the struggles you’ll face as a new producer.

You’ve also got sound design, learning your DAW, arrangement, mixing, mastering, releasing, workflow and a whole lot more to take care of.

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