What is the importance of having the ability to recognize common theoretical musical elements within different musical styles? How could we benefit by such ability? As with most questions of the above nature, there are potentially lots of different answers, which really depend on one's perspective and artistic needs. The benefit of learning about music with this goal of recognizing common theoretical elements within different styles is that eventually and potentially, new ideas for the creative musician can come from any source of experience within our everyday lives, we just have to tune into it. Of course, one doesn't have to be a total theory whiz to do this, and that is sort of my point. Even a basic understanding of the theory coupled with a curious and vigorous mind helps for one to hear cool sounds from one context and place them in another. When the "cool sounds" is the world around us and the "another context" is the development our own artistic voice, potential sources for musical ideas expand dramatically.
Lets look at how one common musical element is transformed to fulfill similar functions in various musical styles. We’ll use the tonic chord in the major tonality and run it through various musical style filters.
Folk, rock and country music generally rely on three note triads and the pitches of the major / relative minor scale to create their tonic and tonal center. Example 1.
Blues music is also triad based but also very dominant seventh dependent for its tonic color. The dependence on the blue notes to create the melody is character of the style. Example 2.
Tonic function in the jazz world further opens up the harmonic structure to include the major seventh, nine, augmented 11 and thirteenth. Players call these the color tones. Of course, any opportunity to embellish the lines are usually taken. Example 3.
So why is this potentially important? Perhaps mainly to see the relative level of theoretical complexity of the various styles discussed but also to get a better sense of how the musical resources provided by the equal tempered system can be shaped to create different styles of music. This relationship between style and theory also helps us to see the ease in which our musical resources can be altered to create different musical environments. So why is this important? Well, what happens when a country guitar player hears bebop lines for the first time? Well, that depends on the player of course, but knowing a bit of the theory of the music that an artist creates can perhaps provide a basis to explore other styles, and maybe use elements of one style to expand another? Part of the process of one's musical evolution? These theory / style relationships are further explored in styles of American music.
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Other artistic ideas? How about artistic techniques?
The beginning is the most important part in any work. Plato
