Learning is a process by which people gather information about the structure of something (music) and transform that information into symbolic representations that serve as guides for action (playing the music) (Bandura, 1986). Students learn music theory because of the cognitive structure it provides in making them a well-rounded musician. When students are attempting to learn a piece and need to do something to learn a piece, they answers need to come in a reasonable length of time, or self-doubt will set in. Music theory is one potent source of their music learning.

Music theory is the "English grammar" of music. Study of music theory is essential because of the need to understand the structure of music. Why does one need to understand structure? Why not just learn a piece and play it? The reason is that the pieces, whether they are Jazz or Beethoven, Blues or Bach, all are based on harmonic structure, enabling the musician to organize the piece in their mind. This works like the parts of speech so you can construct your sentences; so you can construct an entire sentence in past tense, then construct another sentence in future tense based on the rules of grammar that you “just know” so implicitly well. Musicians need to know their theory that well. It goes beyond mere memorization; what it does is enable the musician to conceptualize the score in such a way that the score makes sense to that musician so the piece is totally in the musician’s head.

Beginning Level Theory: When the pieces are short, as in beginning level pieces, this understanding is not so essential. During that time, students are learning more basic concepts, such as staff and rhythm notation, and more importantly students are learning basic skills about how to decipher a musical score so they can learn the piece. At that level, theory is about aiding students in creating conceptual networks so they can readily access them when attempting to learn a piece of music. Without these conceptual networks well in place, students struggle with simple note-reading and music learning, even in the earliest of levels.

Late Beginning/Early Intermediate Level Theory: As the child progresses in piano, the emphasis shifts from basic skills to more advanced theory concepts, which have the sole purpose of giving the child a conceptual backdrop which the child calls upon when a task is at hand. The pieces are more complex and the child is able to play different styles, which necessitates a wide variety of skills and prior knowledge. The skills and knowledge need to be in place largely before the child comes into contact with the piece which requires those skills and knowledge. Among the skills the children are attaining and have in place during this time period are as follows:

Secure multi-key reading knowledge, or ability to read effectively in all 24 keys (12 major, 12 minor keys)

• Ability to transpose into any of these keys, both by ear and at sight.
• Ability to improvise in any of these keys, then write down what they have just improvised (compose music); students later become proficient using music notation software such as Sibelius.
• Harmonize using primary chords in all 24 keys, using several basic chord styles (alberti bass, broken chord bass, waltz bass, march bass).
• Compose a short piece of music using proper phrase and harmonic structure (make it come out correctly).
• Learn and memorize all pieces quickly and easily because of their ability to think musically and theoretically simultaneously, while utilizing empirically established memory strategies from cognitive psychology.

These students, because of their extensive background in ear playing and theory, are able to play any style they wish as soon as late level 1. They can play Blues as easily as Mozart, and they enjoy both equally. As the students progress into Intermediate and Advanced levels of study, the same themes predominate and are expanded, going into more intricate study of harmony, phrase structure, improvisation, and the students study all styles and style periods so they have a thorough understanding of music from all cultures as well as Western music (what we know as Classical music).

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall.

Rogers, M. R. (1984). Teaching Approaches to Music Theory. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.