mr dave

It's important if you ever want to work in a professional environment or with anyone who's had that experience. Otherwise you come across as a hard headed idealistic pretentious hipster brat (I've got years of experience and little to show for exactly that reason).

Basically learning theory is an easy way to prove to other musicians that you're flexible and adaptable to styles and techniques besides the favourites from your personal comfort zone.

You don't need to learn much but I have to say, it's incredibly frustrating to try playing with someone who 'knows' how to play but never bothered learning 'any' theory. When someone asks you how to play a song and you call out 'it's G, C and D' and they give you a wide eyed look like you started speaking alien until you show them the actual chord shapes they recognize but refuse to learn the names of. That's your attitude. How awesome is it?

The worse thing was that guitar player who refused to learn alphabetical names of the basic major chords could blaze through Eruption on his acoustic. People lost their sh1t and kept praising him like he was some sort of wunderkin. But ask him to play a E minor chord? Forget it.

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