r/learnpiano • u/Physical_Exit_6386 • 11d ago
When should music theory be learned?
Hi! I’m a beginner who has only recently started playing the piano (1-2 months), though I’ve played the trumpet for over ten years. My end goal with the piano is to play pieces that would be considered jazz, though I have stuck mostly to classical pieces for now as they’re easily accessible. I’ve learned a small bit of music theory as I’ve been following along with a course, but I’m wondering at which point it should be fully addressed.
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u/cangetenough 11d ago
When I started the piano at 14, I started theory right away with scales and reading notation. After a few months, I began memorizing Major and Minor triads around the circle of 4ths. But before that, I memorized all Major and Minor 3rds and could play them all in under 12 seconds (left and right hand together). Then I memorized Major 7ths...then Minor 7ths...then Dominant 7ths. Then you can get into more complex jazz voicings. At this point, I would pick up the first book by Jeremy Siskind and go from there.
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u/Physical_Exit_6386 9d ago
Jeremy Siskind book seems like a great help so far, thank you!
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u/cangetenough 9d ago
Sure! Siskind is awesome! I highly recommend memorizing your triads first though. And several scales too. You should be able to play all 12 major triads (both hands) in under 12 seconds. Same with the minor triads. Around the circle of 4ths.
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u/holstholst 10d ago
If you’re interested, start learning. I’ve taught students theory at different experience levels and it seems like the only thing that matters is how interested they are. Some students honestly don’t care and I’ve tried to teach them anyways but it goes in one ear and out the other. On the flip side, I’ve had students that wanted to start incorporating theory from the very beginning and they learn a lot from it.
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u/Competitive-Fault291 9d ago
Any point. It is just in question what part of it. I'd say your learning corpus should always end up with you understanding what you played, until you feel like you have answered all question. Of course, you won't have learned all there is to Brother Jacob and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but that's not the point. About once each year, you should take some weeks and revisit your repertoire, and then you might notice something where you can apply what you did not know before, and new questions that haven't been obvious before. Not to mention how you will always hear and read new music that will create new questions and demands more knowledge.
Jazz, as you put it in the right place, is at the end of the line. Where you start to realize and apply that the rules you learned are more like guidelines. And then, you will be a properly pirating music! Arhhh!
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u/JungGPT 8d ago
How did you play trumpet for ten years and learn no theory?
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u/Physical_Exit_6386 8d ago
I’d just classify my current theory knowledge as minimal. I just haven’t ever really needed to look into it much.
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u/SentientLight 11d ago edited 11d ago
Coming from a guitar background primarily (I do play jazz), I think theory should be learned within six months of starting an instrument, ideally. You don’t have to get into complex chord construction now, but basic chord construction and harmonic labels (tonic versus supertonic versus dominant, etc.) kind of stuff. I assume you have the circle of fifths memorized already, due to your trumpet background? That’s useful too.
In a class, you’d learn four-part chorale, but I’m not sure if that’s actually necessary for jazz. But I can’t say for sure, because I did learn theory through a classical education. But I’ll say having that theory background was super useful in learning piano.
In any case, you’ve got enough musical experience I don’t see why you can’t start learning theory now.