Sagar – Page 26 – Best Online Singing Lessons

I think that singers are probably the most ignorant about music compared to the rest of the musicians. Kidding. It’s easy to understand why though, singing is such an intuitive thing that you do dull it down to arpeggios and on paper is sacrilege. Singers need to know music theory to make sense of the system through which all musicians communicate. Music theory opens avenues for a musician that weren’t there before like composing and even becoming proficient at arranging. There is a lot to unpack here, all I can tell you is I am going to 100% try to convert you into someone who will feel compelled to know music theory if you weren’t before and flame the flame for those who are looking for reassurance. What is Music Theory? Imagine music theory as a language. A foreign language will allow you to do two things very well. First, understand other people who speak the same language. Second, to speak what you have to say in a fluent manner. Music theory is kind of like a language used by all musicians to communicate things to each other while arriving at the same conclusion. I say kind of because it sometimes does more than that and sometimes a little differently. For example, a B7 chord must mean a B7 and if you are working with other people or even just with yourself, a B7 has to mean a B7. We aren’t in the luxury to make something out of nothing. Why is Music Theory? A system like music theory is extremely important and seems to give its rewards almost indefinitely regardless if you’re wearing the hat as a composer in your home studio or as a producer tomorrow on the set. This common ground of understanding between musicians serves as a way to speak indefinitely. It allows the creation of ideas (like speech) to be understood and then talked and discussed about. Like talking about things you love, music theory goes beyond the barrier of languages and allows the reader to understand written music in a way that is unprecedented compared to others. No Known Alternatives It’s like democracy. Is it the best way to talk and understand music? We could hypothetically always create a better way that would be superior to our current system for sure. But, let it be known that there are no alternatives to this approach as of yet. There exists Hindustani music and having studied that for two semesters in India, western music theory can be expressed in ways that are far much easier to understand. Music theory is the most efficient system there is. Learning it is a peach and once aware of its possibilities you will definitely never go back. I am very surprised when I meet musicians who don’t know music theory. How is Music Theory? Music theory needs to be understood. Obviously right? I compared music theory as a language and how speaking it will allow you to understand others and express what you yourself are doing. Well, it’s time to become a literary genius. The Text of Music Theory If music theory is the speech of the language then learning how to read and write music is the text of this language. Reading literature, reading music, and being able to understand someone else’s mind and ability will help you tremendously. And just like being able to express yourself with speech, you can also learn to express yourself with the ability to write music. In reality, making a lead sheet is going to help you and your band more than you know. In the context of recording songs, having made the lead sheet or a chord chart will allow setting the tempo and pace inside of a DAW (article on why they are the best app to use). The expected time to learn to read music is going to be one or two sittings. The expected time to become proficient at it is 6 months with daily practice and 3 with dedicated practice. Not sight-reading, just reading music at a decent pace. Sight-reading is a whole other game. Ear Training and Music Theory When you understand music theory and know how to read music it will allow you to do something that we do in a language all the time. We connect how words sound when we read something. It’s a bad habit when you’re trying to speed-read something but it proves the point. You’re doing it right now as you’re reading this. Imagine being able to do it in music. You read the music and you can hear it in your head not just that but in the rhythm that it is written as well. It’s a wonderful skill to have and quite a beautiful one too. So, when you start reaching a level where you are able to hear written music you can do the opposite as well. You can write what you hear. The whole idea of language is to do that. To present an idea and to understand. If you can understand a language when it’s both written and spoken you’re essentially a master of that language. In a similar vein, I would say that you’d be pretty good at music if you’re able to do the same as well. To be able to write what you think and to think what you write. Combining ear training with music theory will grant you these abilities. You Don’t Need to be a Philosopher You don’t need to be a philosopher to understand English and the same goes for music. Some people just want to know the ins and outs of it and nothing more. Some would like to do some more heavy reading than an average person. Some won’t. Whatever you decide to do will depend on your needs and how it serves you. I think that is what’s wrong with music education. There is so much excessive jargon in college that one might not necessarily need. You may teach a young person all there is to know about music theory and improve their ear to being one of the best but being overqualified for something doesn’t necessarily need it. So take this with a grain of salt. I recommend learning basic music theory and combining ear training with it but I also recommend taking a step back and reconciling with yourself what you need. My songs aren’t complicated. So I think I made a really good choice of dropping out of Berklee. In Berklee’s defense, it is a college and I was never really a great classroom student to begin with. What It’ll Allow You To Do Obviously, you know how it works and what it does. Time to talk about the specifics. Compose Better This is the biggest one for me. It’ll allow you to see chords, harmony, and melody in a cohesive way that will allow you to compose faster and better until one day it’s just second nature. The other side of the coin of composing and understanding music theory is being able to see how others have composed. Your composer's choice of harmony across the chosen timbre from the arrangement will allow you to dissect what your beloved composer has done. This is really helpful when you’re trying to find your ‘sound’ or ‘voice’ in your compositions. The only way to do it is to write like the bands or artists that you listen to and have the knowledge of how they do it will allow you to mix two things that have never been done and pave the way for you to start finding your ‘voice’ through experimentation and even allow you to compose with confidence. Arranging Arranging is a beautiful art that I am really in awe of. Listen to artists on YouTube covering their favorite songs and how they add their own tastes. It’s really wonderful how creative people can get. Beyond understanding how other people are composing it’s another one of those things that will allow you to see and dissect melody and harmony properly and allow you to choose your own instruments to change the mood of an original song and give you plenty of ideas to create your own flavor of music. Timbre Explosion In the past decade, there has been a massive shift in the way we compose music. We have replicated every instrument digitally. At first, you could tell the difference, so big production houses used to wait for a mockup with ‘fake’ digital arrangements. Once approved, it would be sent to get recorded by a real orchestra. Irrespective of what you play or which medium you choose to play it on. Music theory remains constant. It doesn’t shake nor does it start adhering to some other law other than its own. Master it once, use it infinitely. How Difficult is Music Theory? Not at all. It’s not hard at all. That’s why it baffles me why more musicians who I come across don’t know music theory. There is, I think, a notion that music theory is a hard thing to master. It’s not. Within a month of studying it, you will be able to grasp a decent amount and that leads me to say this. Finite Knowledge It’s a limited amount of knowledge that you need to execute over and over. The use of it itself will allow you to bring flow and speed to your ability to execute your theory. Because it’s a limited amount of knowledge, you should be tackling music theory with that in mind. Once you know it has a finite end and can be used everywhere, you’d be better equipped to do anything you want. It only ends up giving you more and more rather than taking anything in return. For something that only takes once to understand it’s quite powerful. Genre Certain genres require you to push your music theory to the extreme. For example, to jazz players, music theory is like a second language altogether. While on the other hand, in rock music, you will probably never dive that deep into complicated theory. The point is, that music theory across genres is divided unevenly. You will find complex changes and time signatures in one and in some genres completely simple. If you’re sure where you’re heading then you can aim for a particular goal and go for it. I have done the same. I don’t really compose jazz, I know a little bit of it. I wasn’t very fond of it, to begin with. I have stuck to composing rock and classical music and have yet to feel a lack of theoretical knowledge. Understand the Principles - Internalize Later I advocate understanding the principles. The principle ensures you understand the big picture of things. In the case of music theory, knowing how to build a major chord makes sure you understand how all major chords are built. It’s the difference between telling you that the notes C, E, and G make the C chord versus that if you take any note, a major third and perfect fifth from the root is going to make a C major chord. Both methods will get you to realize which notes are required to make a C major chord but only the latter method shows you a principle. Principles are Universal One easy way to distinguish between a principle and something that is not is knowing that principles apply universally. The notes C, E, and G ‘only’ make the C major chord, not anything else. However, the principle of building chords is universal. It’s mechanical but highly effective. It’s as I said, universal. Its formula allows you to find the notes that will comprise the major chord regardless of which root note you might choose. It’s an essential building block but it’s like teaching someone to fish rather than giving them a fish. One fills your belly once the other infinitely. I really hope you take the plunge into learning music theory! Where Can You Learn Singing From? I have written extensively on why everyone should have an online course in their library. You can read it here. My personal recommendation is to go to this page and check all of the courses that I know will benefit you. I personally own 'The Four Pillars of Singing', which is an affiliate link. This comes along with an eBook. Whatever you end up doing I know you're going to be great at it!