Music Before Theory - What does it mean?

Music Theory is the field of study that deals with the mechanics of music and how music works. In the simplest context, it's the study of music notation, rhythm, melodic structure, harmony and form.

This being the traditional approach, there are literally thousands of books, lessons,teachers, websites, and other resources out there where you can learn about music theory.

Music Theory is historically embedded with multiple layers of code, added on with each generation or era to deal with the newest complexities and theories of the latest generation. These were no more than working theories about how to organize music, and how we hear music. It is as culturally arbitrary as Arabic scales or Javanese tunings, and at the end of the day, it is OLD theory.


We use the conventions and theory of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven’s students to explain music that has evolved tremendously. Chopin muddied the waters of harmonic theory, and Debussy absolutely negated them, atonal and ethnic music ignored it or never new about it, and yet music has not only survived, it has evolved and exploded in a wonderful hybrid of styles and flavors.


The theory is only useful to a limited extent in “explaining” music, and in fact leads to a great deal of confusion. It is as if we tried to explain modern English grammar and vocabulary (a language salad if ever there was one) with ancient Latin Grammar cases. It sort of works, because we have Latin as one of our roots, but it really confuses too, if you don’t realize it is just an arbitrary model that didn’t even really explain Latin.

Because there is an underlying simplicity and logic to music that one gets to after years of study, where consonance and dissonance are yin and yang, where pattern and deviation are yin and yang, and where pitch and time are yin and yang, and music is the eternal interplay of all of them and more, and all the theory in the world is just, well, not really helpful at getting to the core of music and music making. Especially if all you want to do is play and enjoy music.

MOST musicians cannot read music fluently, that is how bad it is. At best they decipher it. Forget the rest of us (until now). Those that can read, tend to read a melodic instrument, like a flute or clarinet, not a harmonic instrument, like guitar or piano. Melody is sequential, like language. Harmony, and rhythm, are simultaneous, multiple streams of information coming at us at once. THAT is challenging, and what takes years of practice to learn.

Traditional piano lessons teach musical notation first. But most learners don't want to wade through the hieroglyphics before they get to play. They want to play NOW. We've discovered a new method that teaches anyone to easily play piano using the music before theory approach.

This new approach is called the Piano Wizard Learning System. With Piano Wizard you will still need to PRACTICE, but the SECRET to MASTERY is to ENJOY the practice. The Piano Wizard 4 Step method can help you enjoy practice, and take you gradually to the farthest depths and highest mountains of musical notation, in an enjoyable fun journey through the greatest music ever written. A secret treasure chest of musical literature, wide open for you to enjoy for the rest of your life. And probably the most amazing thing about this method is that is a a game - but ideal for any age.

Piano Wizard won’t teach you about theory or to read music, because at the end of the day, fluency is unconscious, automatic association - fluency is where a student starts their studies of language theory.

Think about it. A child of one can understand (passive comprehension) more than they can say. They begin to speak, they get corrected, (or not) and begin to learn the most complex languages in the world reasonably well by the time they are five, with or without guidance or training, just by doing. So, active speaking came second, after comprehension, in the natural learning process that we all have hard-wired into our brains.

Then, we teach them to read, again (passive) then to write (active), and after a year or two more we teach them the parts of speech, and then to diagram sentences, conjugate verbs, undangle prepositions.

Piano Wizard teaches by DOING - by PLAYING. All the underlying logic of music is there, and is subconsciously, and then consciously exposed to the player, but that comprehension is not necessary for them to play, learn and enjoy music. In fact, this game transcends years of musical theory, history, and an archaic confusing musical notation tradition, and reveals in living color the underlying MATHMATICAL and SPATIAL logic of music.

There are 2 basic dimensions, pitch (which note, color coded for easy identification in the game) and rhythm, or time, (revealed by showing the original logic of space between notes to show the correct time to play them). Because the child can ANTICIPATE when to play the note, their innate hand-eye coordination is all they need to play the music of the masters, in seconds.

There are other dimensions of music that the game does NOT teach, like timbre, attack, dynamics, and the rich musical conventions we inherited that constitute harmonic theory, but these are the muscles, the flesh, the organs of music. Pitch and Time are the skeleton, upon which all the rest hangs. Get that right, and you have a basic form, from which you can BEGIN to create great music.

Wanna Play? Click here to learn more about Piano Wizard.

Practicing the Piano Should Be A Positive Experience!

Interesting gaming programs which is also truly educational is not easy to find -- especially in the category of music instruction. Computer software games are a huge and burgeoning industry because kids are almost hopelessly captured by them. Wouldn't the ideal music-learning process integrate piano instruction software with a fun, interactive gaming environment?

Software applications which furnishes users a non-violent choice to mainstream video games, which are simultaneously, compelling, and challenging, could also teach musical literacy quite efficiently. Such a combination would have the unrivaled potential to transform the normally tedious and repetitive piano practice into an exciting, extremely rewarding video game experience – ultimately taking the "yuck!" out of each piano practice -- forever.

Using gaming software to make practicing the piano enjoyable would solve some particularly vexing problems. Fathers and mothers wouldn't feel obliged to nag their kids to practice (they might actually have the opposite problem – they may have to nag their kids to STOP practicing). Piano teachers need not worry whether their students will make any progress between lessons. On the students' side, the shear numbers of people to which learning the piano could be made accessible would be substantially enlarged. And, perhaps first and foremost, piano students will associate fun and attainment with the piano instead of drudgery and struggle.

Music Wizard Group, makers of Piano Wizard, appears to have found that magical fusion. They are enthusiastically dedicated to deliver FUN piano practice software to the marketplace -- thanks to a sound product concept and design environment.

Chris Salter, the genius behind MWG, says, "Piano Wizard represents a significant shift in the way we introduce music to kids as well as adults, with many people thinking that it simply can't be done, or conversely, that they have seen this before. Because of these perceptions, we knew we [had to] let people see for themselves that the gateways to music are now wide open for everyone.”

You should know that Piano Wizard isn't the only piano practice software out there. There are about ten or more titles to choose from including Teach Me Piano, Piano Suite Premier, and Instant Play Piano. Nonetheless, none of these are really video games, but are instructional software focussed on teaching skills – not so much of the keep-them-glued magic of Piano Wizard. Teach Me Piano includes some games as accessories, but they are not a pivotal part of their program. So, in actuality Allegro Rainbow has blazed the trail by melding piano instruction with gaming software.

Jesse Fisher, enjoys writing about interesting new developments in the musical software industry. Visit Music wizard to learn more about this breakthrough in educational programs.