This 
Music is “emotion” in the first place and not “construction” or “engineering” 
1 Like
This discussion is so old, and I have not heard any now point in it. Knowing a bit of theory doesn’t make you overthink stuff. I started as a musician with no clue at all about theory and argued a lot about that it would kill my creativity. With the time I learned stuff and realized, that knowing around on the piano /the guitar whatever and a little understanding about what sounds good and what not helps a lot when coming up with ideas. Knowing about theory is not about giving things names. It’s about understanding basic concepts on how the majority of ears hears frequencies. If you learn that by reading or over the years doesn’t make a difference but that the first is able to talk to others, while the second might have difficulties doing so.
Everyone who knows how to play a chord knows and uses theory btw!
2 Likes
Haha yes, and extending your point about the naive idea that theory kills creativity, how do people think all these pianos, guitars, keyboards, synths etc got made? They’re the physical product of engineering based wholly on theory.
Therefore the ‘truly creative’ musician ought to resist using musical instruments at all cost!
2 Likes
To be fair instrument making is more about frequencies, ratios and inner designs than any music theory. So it’s even worse — it’s SCIENCE.
I wouldn’t big myself up on the amazing or talented parts, but I can play by ear quite easily, I never need to think of a scale though I did learn some of the major ones. I know the basic chords and and top I know what sounds good or doesn’t. I couldn’t sit there and name the notes, but I could re construct something pretty quickly.
But at the same time, if someone shows me where the notes are on any instrument, I can get a tune out of it pretty easily, maybe not woodwinds so much…
1 Like
It’s all science when you get down to it, especially synthesis. Notes are just a set of rules for frequencies.
IMO … then you belong to those, having it in their blood 
There is no need to be famous That’s a rare gift.
1 Like
What ios app do you recomend woth launchpad and iphone??
A analogy might be language and grammar. Most adult speakers will be able to speak fluently in their first language in a way that is grammatically correct, and they would be able to tell you when speech is incorrect, yet most of them would be hard pressed to tell you the actual grammatical rules of that language (especially in places like the UK where grammar is rarely taught).
When it comes to writing, they might have a harder time - someone who’s a fluent ‘native’ speaker might not know proper spelling, punctuation, sentence formation etc, in the written word.
In the same way, a lot of people who listen to music will be able to hum along, or even play along in tune/in key, and would tell you when something sounded off, but might have a hard time when an instrument is put in front of them, or if they had to explain the rules, or write them down.
The language speakers ‘know the grammar’ without having the theoretical learning, just as many musicians/music lovers ‘know the theory’ without being able to tell you what a scale is.
As for whether that’s innate, ‘in the blood’, you’ll have to bring that up with Chomsky 
1 Like
Keeping it in your analogy … with “in the blood” I ment those, who are writers without having learned all the spelling and grammar 
BTW … IMO a lot people have it, they only don’t know.
Show me one.
I think we as a culture have placed a lot of credence on the ‘born natural’, and yeah there’s people born with a mass of talent, but the reality is usually one of diligent study and practice. Like the ‘free flowing and non-rule-bound’ Kerouac spent years (a decade?) practicing before ‘writing on the road in three weeks’, and was very well read in all the ‘great literature’ - he didn’t just spring up from nowhere. Show me a ‘natural’ musician who didn’t listen to a tonne of music (learning ‘theory’), and spend years practicing.
1 Like
and OP’s son doesn’t even know that his potential gift sparked such a deep discussion about origins of talent and creativity
3 Likes
Get him an iPad and let him decide what he would like to use.
There are many wonderful possibilities for any taste and any level of skills.
How about Korg Gadget or iMaschine for instance? Plus enhancing the creativity by combining other apps is almost unlimited.
Otherwise I would go for the Circuit or a NI Maschine might also do the trick.
After all you should take his longterm motivation in concern so I would not go for full budget.
Not that much money lost buying a Circuit or Maschine.
An iPad on the other side could be used for many things.
Can’t … at least for a writer, but in music we could find a couple 
That is very true for any craft, science, and art. Talent is important and makes it easier to emerge, but if there is no hard work invested, it’s wasted.
Garageband, Korg Gadget, Beatmaker. There are loads.
All though I agree that this conversation seems over done and aggravating. I don’t know that knowing a G chord means you know theory. I’ve played guitar over twenty years and couldn’t riff a scale to save my life, but I can mash some strings and whip out a rtym that’ll get the heads nodding. If that’s theory than I’m updating my resume!
Knowing chords means that you know how to form harmonies out of single notes. You know how to play them, you know how they sound and you have a big enough understanding to use them to create riffs. You don’t necessarily know that those are created bout of 3rds and 5th and maybe some more, but you know them and how to use them. And even that you say, you are not able to play scales, I am quite sure, that you know that you should avoid some notes after others, because you found out that it doesn’t sound that great in the context you are. That’s knowing and applying it is music theory.
If you know the price of 3 apples you are able to find out quite quickly what 5 apples would cost you. You don’t have to know that it is named „rule of 3“ (hope google translated that correctly) to apply the rule behind it. And just because you don‘t know the name, doesn‘t mean you don’t know math.
And same with math, just because you don’t know everything does not mean you know nothing. It’s just that more or less every person who does music knows parts of music theory. That’s all I wanted to hint at. Those who always tell, that they don’t know theory (like yourself it seems) forget that they apply theory (without naming it) all the time.
If he’s wanting some hardware to make beats, i’d suggest a groovebox:
Novation Circuit
Electribe 2
Or, if you are willing to spend a little more and want a DAW in a box, then:
MPC One
Damn, i wish i got into this world when i was 18! I was past 30 when i first started out!
Good luck!
it sounds silly but i don’t know theory and it’s been quite helpful to have synths with keyboards or at least some way of playing notes in. trying to set up melodies with just a step sequencer drives me crazy.
I still do that, but call it A Minor