Big confession guys. I know nothing about music theory, I don't play an instrument. (I was raised by philistines).
I've been wanting to learn music theory for years to better understand various pieces (I'm so clueless I didn't realize that the main tune to the Prelude to Act Three of Tristan was... the four notes indicating Tristan that began at the very beginning of the act one prelude, I had to learn that from the Bernstein video) and participate in discussions and threads like "guess the composition". However, I'm intimidated.
What's the learning curve? On average, how many hours do I have to study before I can get to the level in which I can identify stuff like that and understand counterpoint and half diminished 7ths and stuff like that? Good enough to make the kind of critiques made here, on how a recording deviates from the score. I'm a quick learner, how fast do people who are fast at this stuff learn? How many hours of studying am I looking at before I can follow Wagner's score while I listen to Meistersinger?
I've been wanting to learn music theory for years to better understand various pieces (I'm so clueless I didn't realize that the main tune to the Prelude to Act Three of Tristan was... the four notes indicating Tristan that began at the very beginning of the act one prelude, I had to learn that from the Bernstein video) and participate in discussions and threads like "guess the composition". However, I'm intimidated.
What's the learning curve? On average, how many hours do I have to study before I can get to the level in which I can identify stuff like that and understand counterpoint and half diminished 7ths and stuff like that? Good enough to make the kind of critiques made here, on how a recording deviates from the score. I'm a quick learner, how fast do people who are fast at this stuff learn? How many hours of studying am I looking at before I can follow Wagner's score while I listen to Meistersinger?