I kid but also listen to jazz every day.
Join us at !jazz@lemmy.world if you dig.
this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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No, the art is how you express yourself. The theory is just "the way most people in a culture do it because other people in this culture like it". There is certainly some biological reasoning behind it that is common across cultures, but it's a fairly small part of music theory. Consider a simple question like "why are dissonant chords considered dissonant?" and it can lead you down a path of discovery.
It absolutely is eurocentric to enforce western music theory as some holy book that separates good music from bad music. It's a tool that helps you write music that sounds good to a western ear. But a lot of good music can disagree or break the norms of western music theory.
That's not a disagreement with my statement that "the art is in how the science is applied."
People expressing themselves are applying the science, whether they're doing it consciously or not.
Music theory isn't about preference. It's about "place tension on a string at intervals of halves and thirds, and it creates a harmonic resonance." Or "two resonances with specific vibrational proportions relative to each other create certain effects."
It's not biological, what the fuck? It's geometric, primarily.
Dissonance is the effect produced by two or more resonant frequencies whose proportions to each other aren't fractional, or aren't simple fractions.
Ask yourself why harmonious chords are all at set intervals. To keep things simple, let's consider one musical scale. Why do you think 1-3-5 forms the basis of every chord progression? Why do you think 1-3-5-7 produces a similar effect across any musical scale? Why do you think sus2, sus4, diminished, and augmented chords produce consistent effects no matter what scale they're applied to?
Granted, I recognize that these are examples from western notation, but the concept isn't limited to western notation. If you break the whole steps and half steps into microtonals, you can "convert" a western musical scale into any other culture's system, and vice versa. Just like converting between fahrenheit and celsius.
I'm not enforcing "western music theory" as anything! That's a leap you're making, by conflating "music theory" with "western notation." In other words, you're the one being eurocentric.
Also, I made no statements on what separates "good music from bad music." That's about preference, which is in the art. It's wholly outside the realm of the science that underlies the art.
The "western ear" is a false construct. There's all sorts of people in the west with ears for all sorts of different music. There isn't some unified "this sounds good to westerners." That's ridiculous. What you're doing is attempting to conflate the art of music with the science of music, to claim that there is no science. There is a science, it just has nothing to do with preference. Preference is entirely within the realm of the art, which applies the science, and can do so in many ways with much variance.
Different people like different kinds of cars. Different cultures make different cars. But would you really try to argue that the science underlying mechanical design doesn't really exist because people have different preferences in the way that science is applied?
No one would say "Red and blue make purple" is a western colonialist or eurocentric statement. Color theory is a science. Visual arts apply the underlying science to create variance of expression, and everyone has their own preferences regarding that expression. But that doesn't change the fact that the color wheel is a science. Lines and forms are a science. Light and shading is a science. They can be applied in abstract ways, and people can like or dislike them, but it's still a science.
Likewise, rhythm, meter, and harmony are sciences. They can be applied in different ways. They can even be described in different ways. But underlying them are certain mathematical constants, and if you don't understand that then you're revealing your ignorance about musical theory.