Do you need to learn music theory to excel in music? It is a question that returns in every generation, especially as more musicians rise outside formal institutions. We should start with a caveat first. This is not an argument against studying music in school or against self-learning as a disciplined craft. It is an exploration of the role music theory plays in shaping musicianship, and whether it is a requirement or simply one of many possible paths.

The late Nigerian Afrobeat godfather Fela Anikulapo Kuti offers an early example. Sponsored by his parents to Great Britain to study medicine, he abandoned that path and enrolled at Trinity College of Music. There, he learned classical music, trumpet, composition, and arrangement. Yet the sound that would later define Afrobeat did not emerge fully from classrooms. It emerged from Lagos nightclubs, political anger, jazz records, highlife rhythms, and long band rehearsals. Theory gave Fela structure, but lived experience gave him direction.

Ayub Ogada’s journey was different. He was raised to revere his ancestors' Luo traditions, and as a young man toured the United States and Kenya with his musical parents, performing Luo culture. He came to specialize in the nyatiti, the eight-stringed lyre that would become his signature instrument. In 1979, he formed the band African Heritage in Nairobi, dedicated to creating new, original music for a new Kenya. When the band veered toward international pop in 1986, he left for London, where he played with Taxi Pata Pata and formed a new roots band, Orchestra Rafiki. His music carried a depth that could not be traced to notation alone. It came from repetition, listening, and memory rooted in Luo tradition. When the world discovered him through film soundtracks, it was not an academic background they heard, but a voice and feel shaped by culture and lived experience.

Salif Keita, often called the golden voice of Africa, never attended a formal music school. Born into a noble Malian family where music was discouraged. He taught himself, moved to the city to start singing in nightclubs, found his way to the Rail band of Bamako,  and the rest is history. His understanding of melody and phrasing came from tradition, not textbooks. His mastery came from time, not certificates.

These stories point to an uncomfortable truth for rigid systems. Music theory is a language, but it is not music itself. It explains what has already been felt, played, and tested. For some, theory accelerates growth. For others, it comes later as a tool to describe what instinct already knows. In African music especially, learning has always been communal, practical, and oral. Songs were passed hand to hand, not page to page.

Today’s music space reflects this same tension. Some of the most successful artists can read and write music fluently. Others cannot name a single chord but can move millions with a hook. The difference is rarely theory. It is consistency, listening, curiosity, and the willingness to keep refining sound.

Perhaps the better question is not whether music theory is necessary, but when it becomes useful. For many, it is not the beginning of the journey. It is the mirror that helps them understand where they have already been.

In the end, music does not reward how it is learned. It rewards how it is felt, practiced, and shared.

The design above is the cover for the blogpost titled Do you need to learn Music Theory to Excel in Music.

Do You need to Learn Music Theory to Excel in Music?

The design above is the cover for the blogpost titled Do you need to learn Music Theory to Excel in Music.

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