Originally posted by lalimacefolle
. . . but that the biggest mistake I have seen written on this board. Creativity and knowledge are two different stuff, and usually, there are two kinds of people.

I think we are having some difficulty with semantics here. From my point of view, creativity is taking what you know and putting it together in an original way. (this applies to music, art, architecture, science, computer programming, etc) I've never really heard of any of those geezers that you mentioned, but whether or not they realized it, they were using theory to compose. Just like you might be able to paint an amazing picture without knowing anything about perspective, light, or color through sheer dumb luck or intuition, you can play the guitar and compose without knowing or using theory. But just as the painter who doesn't know any artistic principles is unwittingly using them in his work, so does the guitarist/musician who plays without knowing theory.

You're still using it, so you might as well learn it. It'll make things a lot easier in the long run.