Originally Posted by: da_ardvarkMy explaination of music theory will be (as everything I try and explain
0 by way of analogy. It's important to know theory to make music in the the same way it's important to have a sound basis of mechanical engineering in order to build a bridge. In other words only be posessing a thorough understanding of the underlying theory, can you then break those rules.

Not sure this makes any sense but ot me it does :D

Yeah, I totally agree. I realize now that an understanding of the underlying theory of music does nothing but help your playing.
I just think that if I'd come at it from the way of learning theory first, I would probably have given up a long time ago because it all seemed so difficult at the time. The reason I stuck with it for 20 years was because I enjoyed playing guitar without feeling any pressure from anybody to do things "right". Later on, when I really needed theory in order to teach, I realized that all the jargon I'd thought was so difficult at first was actually just technical explanations for all the things that I already knew how to do.

To me, I feel like I bypassed a stumbling block that personally would have discouraged me from learning guitar. I hated school, never did homework and hated being told what to do. If I'd been forced to learn to read music back then and learn scales I would have hated it so much, I'd never have bothered with it.