If you’re hitting a wall in music theory

There’s a point in each of my piano students’ music journey where I notice their questions shift from how music works to why music works the way it does.

The how questions are the easy ones. They’re just questions about mechanics. How to build a major scale, how to build a good rhythm.

But once my students start to understand the mechanics of how music works, then they ask why it works that way. Why does the leading tone draw us to the tonic? Why is the dominant chord so strong in every key signature?

To these “why” questions, I often have to shrug and answer that it’s part of the magic of music. For all the patterns and formulas we have in music theory, there’s a deep inherent magic to music that we’ll never be able to fully explain.

I think part of the reason for this is because music theory is more of a science, but music enjoyment is felt. Sometimes I think we lose sight of the fact that the feeling of music came first, and music theory followed that feeling. Music theory is just an attempt to organize or systematize how we can improve our chances of writing music that sounds good. But the enjoyment of music itself? That lies in an entirely different universe.

All the patterns and formulas that we learn about can help deepen our appreciation for music and can help us more easily read music when we see it, but there is still an inherent, deep magic as to why these things work that we cannot explain.

So if you’ve been studying music theory for a while but feel like you’re hitting a wall, there’s a chance that your questions are starting to enter the realm of the unanswerable. If you feel like you’re not quite getting something, I encourage you to think a little more closely about what kinds of questions you’re asking. Are you wondering how something works? Or have your questions shifted to why the system works that way?

If your questions are how questions, YouTube is your friend! There are tons of channels, mine included, where music teachers try to share how music works. Pop your question into the search bar and let the algorithm help you find answers!

If you’re starting to ask why questions, I encourage you to keep trying to find answers, but if these answers start getting harder to find, you may be reaching more advanced stages in your piano learning. Your questions may be getting deeper, and may be entering the realm of the unanswerable. At this time, I hope you can take some comfort — and even encouragement! — that you are encountering the magic of music, and I hope you can embrace it :)