Originally Posted by: ZakJenkinsTheory isn't about expressing yourself, it's about telling others what you utilized to express yourself.[/quote]
That's almost it. You left out the first part though: identifying what you used in order to express yourself. Only after that can you "tell others" or communciate what you did.

Originally Posted by: ZakJenkinsI know some great guitar players that play with great emotion, but don't know a bit of theory. If you've got your ear, you can pull off the notes you want, sometimes even better than someone who'll tell you that you're playing E phrygian dominant, what degrees you hit, and what chords would emphasize it best.

It is true that any given player might be able to play better than someone with a better grasp of theory. But again, that doesn't make the theory go away or irrelevant. It simply means that the great player doesn't necessarily know how to conceptually identify what he is doing. In order to be a great player you have to know the physical motions and listen carefully. But, no, it is not absolutely necessary to know "what all those things are called" and how they relate to one another.
[QUOTE=ZakJenkins]
Music Theory's great, but some people choose to follow their ear.

But this is what I mean about the misunderstanding I was talking about earlier.

It is a false alternative to suggest that a musician can either "know theory" or else "use their ear", but not both at the same time. One doesn't make the other invalid or not work. One doesn't fight against the other. They are two pieces of the same puzzle.

In fact, without someone first understanding the theory behind how acoustics, music and musical instruments work in the first place, the person that "can play but doesn't understand the theory" wouldn't be able to do what they do at all.