How Music Theory Will Unlock Your Creativity

It can be quite challenging as an intermediate player to make the leap from being able to play the songs of others well, to being able to create your own riffs and solos - and ultimately find your own unique style of playing. When you begin to understand what other guitarists are playing and why then you are better able to replicate it in other contexts. This doesn’t have to involve a process of sapping the magic and mystery from great moments in guitar history. Rather, it can be a fun way to play detective and uncover why great songs work.

Take the iconic moment in ‘Stairway to Heaven’ when the solo comes in for example, why does it feel so good? Through the verses of the song the tonality has been kept just slightly ambiguous; it flits between a textbook A natural minor scale and a dorian modal harmony with the addition of a D major chord introducing an F# note.

This, combined with using chord extensions like minor 9ths, adds layers of intrigue and moments of tension. So when the more simplistic Am, G, F chord progression comes in on the solo and finally tells us we have definitely arrived in A natural minor, further confirmed by the first lick of the solo resolving to an F natural note, it creates a strong feeling of coming home that satisfies the ear.

If the above sounds like nonsense to you, don’t worry. What’s important to take away from this example is that there are clever tricks you can employ to create great musical moments - and it can be as simple as adding in one extra note to a scale. This is hopefully a more motivating approach to music theory than simply being told you should learn all of your scales just because a shredder on the internet said so.

Why not start your music theory journey by exploring moments in songs or solos that you love using theory, like how Eddie Van Halen often used interesting dissonant passing notes to create stand-out licks, or how Ritchie Blackmore created dramatic, epic sounding riffs with the harmonic minor scale. You can find plenty of song analyses online, and whilst it’s worth being aware that anyone could post an inaccurate analysis, there are plenty of talented music theorists sharing their wisdom across the web. Eventually, as you learn more about music theory you will be able to figure out what is happening in your favourite songs for yourself.

As you continue to learn applied theory through analysing your favourite songs, you’ll uncover a wealth of theory tricks and techniques that produce consistent effects. If there’s a certain musical mood you want to create, you’ll be able to pick out the tools that are going to work with more ease, rather than feeling around the fretboard for hours to try and pin down the notes you are looking for.

Lets say, for example, that you want to create a heavy metal riff with a dark, spooky vibe or Halloween inspired chords & progressions. You could begin with choosing dissonant intervals (dissonant being the theory term for notes that sound a bit gross together) to feature in your riff. An augmented fourth, for instance, is something you can consciously incorporate if you want to make a riff sound either sinister (as in 'Black Sabbath’ by Black Sabbath) or other-worldly and intense (as in ‘Purple Haze’ by Jimi Hendrix).

You may even want to play about with time signatures and add an extra beat every other bar to create a feeling of tension. If you want to hear this effect in action you can listen to Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. The reason this was such a perfect soundtrack choice for The Exorcist is that the main riff alternates between bars of 7/8 and 8/8.

The extra beat at the end of every other bar makes the listener feel uneasy even if they aren’t quite sure why. Pretty cool, right?

Now if the sounds of halloween aren’t really your bag but you’ve been struggling to fully capture the sounds of sunshine in your major key songs, you can still go through the same process of dipping into an applied theory toolkit. You might be playing a standard major chord but you get the sense that you still want it to be prettier, nicer somehow - that could be a great time to add a perfect 4th or major 2nd and play suspended or ‘sus’ chord.

A great example of emphasising major 2nd and perfect 4th movements to create an ultra ‘major’ sound can be found in ‘Here Comes The Sun’ by The Beatles which features a sus2 voicing of the root chord followed by a move to the fourth chord in the scale and a return to the tonic via an uplifting secondary dominant. Again, don’t be discouraged if some of this terminology is still quite new or overwhelming.

Just know that with the help of a few Lick Library music theory courses, you will be able to find the sound you have in your head on the fretboard by making a few informed decisions.

Music theory can be thought of as a language we use to accurately describe musical events and when it comes to creating music in a band or group, it definitely helps to all be speaking the same language. If you still aren’t convinced that learning theory is a freeing and worthwhile endeavour, then consider that being able to describe parts using music theory makes communication a great deal smoother and easier with other musicians.

Have you ever been in a band rehearsal and spent far too long saying things along the lines of ‘no no it’s not quite one of those chords it’s more like this…no up a bit…but then move this finger - no that finger’? Or has your confidence been knocked by being told the new song is in C lydian and starts on F#diminished only to realise you have no idea what that means?

Being unfamiliar with music theory can make collaboration, one of the best parts of being a musician, a frustrating or intimidating task. As you become more acquainted with music theory, you’ll find that your creative flow in a collaborative environment will be interrupted less when you can confidently ask the other guitarist to try playing a dominant seventh instead to help build into the solo section better rather than searching through finger placements, trying to chase a sound you can’t quite articulate.

If you haven’t tried playing in a band before, but you want to give it a go, brushing up on some theory basics first will help to ensure you can be a confident and effective communicator in a rehearsal setting. Of course, you should never be afraid to ask another musician to explain what they mean when using theory terminology you don’t understand, being open to learning and listening is perhaps more important than the scope of knowledge you already posses.

This idea of music theory as effective communication can also apply to learning from an instructor or tutorial. Particularly as your playing progresses and you can quickly get chord shapes under your fingers, it can slow down your learning speed to be reliant on tablature or on the perfect paused video frame to see what is going on. Things are much easier when you can be hear the chord names or intervalic descriptors being given and immediately know what to play.

Essentially, the difference between music theory feeling boring and restrictive, or feeling freeing and creative, is all in the mindset with which you approach it. Remove the idea that music theory is a set of rules to be memorised and approach it instead as a descriptive language and a toolkit of useful strategies that are a means to a musical end. Where the world ‘rule’ implies a set of conventions that mustn’t be broken, the word ‘strategy’ is a more accurate descriptor of what you can really gain from music theory.

Each time you are presented with a new music theory ‘rule’ (e.g. always make chord 2 in a major scale a major chord or use a pivot chord to modulate easily to a new key) regard it as a reliable strategy to make things sound good, but know that you can choose to disregard it if your ears are telling you otherwise.

Do you categorically need to be well versed in music theory to create music? Of course not. However music theory will allow you to understand why you like the songs that you do, which in turn will help you fully realise your inspirations and convert them into creative action. It will build your ability to learn from others and to confidently communicate musical ideas as well as helping to get you out of creative ruts.

When a new riff just isn’t springing to mind, consciously choosing a mode you don’t usually use or an unconventional chord voicing can be just the spark of inspiration that you need. As soon as you adopt this mindset and view theory as an exciting key to creativity, it will never feel like a chore again.