Playing Music without Understanding Theory

My musical ear is decent – not great.  If you play me a complicated jazz tune or a song by King Crimson and the like, I will not be able to play along, but for most rock/folk/blues tunes, I can figure out what’s happening pretty quickly, and my ability to play the song isn’t usually beholden to a particular key.  Like many musicians, I can think of chord changes in terms of Roman numerals, which is hugely helpful when “hearing” changes and playing along.  I’m often made fun of in band practice because I’ll always ask what key a song is in before we start playing.  I can never remember.  Once I know the key, I’m good to go (usually).

What I find amazing is just how many musicians – good one, too – play their instruments without really understanding the language of music, what we often call music theory.  A friend of mine put it this way: it’s like learning a second language by memorizing a lot of sentences.  Yes, it’s impressive to learn so many sentences, and you may be able to utter hundreds of them correctly, like “I’d like my breakfast with two eggs and toast,” but if you instead want to say, “I’d like my lunch with three pickles and coleslaw,” you’ll be in a fix.

This is a great analogy for what some musicians do.  And I’m not knocking them.  I think it’s amazing.  What they do is actually harder than what I do, because they’re memorizing songs.  I’m usually not.  I’m following chord changes that I hear in my head.  I know guitar players who can play crazy difficult solos note for note but who don’t know what a C7#9 chord is.  By contrast, I can’t learn a complicated solo without a great deal of effort;  I can, however, play along to a tune and tell you that the iv minor chord that the band is playing is incorrect – that it’s a flat VII major 9 (as recently happened when my band was learning “Brass in Pocket”).  I’m relatively good at that kind of thing.  Different skill sets, I suppose, and my ear still isn’t what it should be.  A good jazz musician might wonder how I dare to call myself a musician when I don’t know what mode to play over the aforementioned C7#9 chord.  I’ve got a lot to learn, for sure.

But those among us who literally memorize their parts should be revered on some level, because it’s a huge feat to memorize parts and excel in doing so.  The problems arise when you’re trying to communicate with each other.  I’ve had bandmates who don’t know what I’m talking about when I ask them to go to a III major chord, or who can’t change song keys without a lot of preparation.  That can be problematic and, at times, limiting, just as I would be a limiting factor in a jazz combo.

But I think it’s also encouraging that there are multiple ways to approach and enjoy music, and that one can be proficient in some aspect of music but not in others. Ultimately, those differences might even be invaluable to the makeup of a band.

Identifying Notes without Perfect Pitch

It’s been well-established that if you don’t have perfect pitch as an adult, you can’t develop it.  You might be able to develop a very good educated guess, but it’s not the same as playing a cluster of notes on a piano and being able to identify and sing each note perfectly, as Rick Beato’s son can.  (Beato is a well-known and wonderfully informative musician and vlogger whose YouTube videos I highly recommend not only for musicians but for music fans who want to delve a little more deeply into songcraft.)  Of course, learning relative pitch is an important skill that you can develop.  When I attended Berklee College of Music back in the 80s they had classes devoted to ear training, and while I found these useful at the time, these days anyone can train their ears at home without shelling out gobs of cash.  Just download an app at your favorite store and start learning.

That aside, it does come in handy to be able to identify pitch without first plucking notes on a keyboard.  So what can you do if you don’t have perfect pitch? Once again, Rick Beato comes to the rescue. Part 3 of his video series “How to Develop Perfect Pitch” was an eye-opener for me, even though it shouldn’t have been; sometimes the most obvious pursuits are the least likely to cross one’s mind.  In this video Beato recommends choosing twelve songs – one for each pitch – and using these as references for pitch identification.  I had done this for years for the key of C with REO Speedwagon’s “Roll with the Changes,” and once I found C, I could identify all the other pitches through relative pitch.  But Beato’s method works better because it’s quicker – why identify C first if what you really want to do is identify an A? – and also because if one reference fails you by a half-step – as it sometimes does for me – then having another reference can help correct your error.

Watching Beato’s video, I recognized immediately that I’d be better off choosing songs I know well, that are a part of my DNA.  This is easier said than done, because while there are ample pop/rock songs in the key of E or D or A, finding songs to help identify a C# or Aflat are fewer and farther between.  Even now, I’m not positive that some of my choices are the best, but I’ve been able to employ Beato’s pitch-identification strategy while playing piano at church and it works pretty darn well.  It’s really helpful to look at a piece of music and know what the first note or chord is going to sound like before playing it, as it can be jolting if you’re expecting the pitch to be different.  With Beato’s technique, I can more often than not correctly identify the pitch before the song begins.  This isn’t to say that I can identify a note in the midst of a complicated song whose key I haven’t already identified – Beato’s strategy isn’t a substitute for having perfect pitch and has its limitations – but it is useful.

When identifying songs that work for you, it’s important that the note you’re trying to identify plays at the start of the song. A song might be in the key of E, but if the first note is an A, then pick this song for A, not for E.  This is the case for “All my Loving” by the Beatles, which I’ve chosen as my “A” song.  Another helpful tool is to create a playlist of all twelve songs on Spotify or some other music streaming service so that you can quiz yourself quickly and often.

Without further ado, here are the twelve songs I’ve chosen for my pitch identification.  Some of these may be obscure for you, but there are several lists in the comments section of Beato’s video that might prove helpful. 

• C:  “Can’t Buy Me Love” by The Beatles, and “Roll with the Changes” to confirm.

• C#:  The opening to “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers.  Finding a rock song in C# wasn’t easy!

• D: “We Can Work It Out” by The Beatles.  This one really works well for me for some reason.  “Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)” by Pink Floyd is another good one.

• Eflat:  The second note of “The Long and Winding Road” by The Beatles.  Ideally, I’d pick nothing by Beatles songs – they are so ingrained into my musical memory.

• E: “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles.

• F: The first note of “Goodbye to Love” by The Carpenters.

• F#:  The first note sung in “Oh! Darling” by The Beatles.

• G:  “Christmas” by The Who.

• Aflat:  “Ripples” by Genesis.  This is one that works almost 100% for me.

• A:  The first note of “All My Loving” by The Beatles.

• Bflat:  The first note sung on “Guide Vocal” by Genesis.  The “Star Wars” theme works well here, too.

• B:  The original version of “The Revealing Science of God” by Yes.

There you are!  I just tested myself again for each pitch using the above reference songs (first clearing my hearing palette) and I got 10 of 12 notes correct, with two off by a half-step, which means I probably need to practice some more.  This method may not be a perfect pitch substitute, but it does have value if you’re willing to put a little work into it.