Disclaimer: Well this got kind of messy and slightly repetitious and my conclusion kind of differ a little from some of the stuff I claim earlier in the post, but it's kind of late here and I am tired. Hope you'll get the point though.
It doesn't really surprise me one bit.
You don't learn about music by reading a music theory book, music needs to be experienced to be able to understand it.
Music came first then theory was build on the experiences from playing.
They didn't come up with music theory first and then went on with how to apply it to an instrument, they figured out what worked by playing, and then applied theory to find out why it worked and developed a whole system they then could use to communicate ideas on paper and be able to intellectually explain what actually happens.
You know theoretically, and I am sure there are in fact players like that, you can have perfect pitch and be so much at home on your bass's fretboard from playing that you could play just about anything without even knowing the names of the notes.
I am not saying you shouldn't learn theory, it's a great and very practical tool, especially when needing to communicate your ideas to other musicians, but actual experience by playing comes before reading about it in a book in my opinion.
To come with an example by Victor Wooten, he compares it to learning language.
When you first learn how to speak you do it by spectating and listening to others do it and then mimic them until you learn how to do it properly, you basically learn by jamming with others participating in conversation, even if your first attempts will be kind of primitive.
Even with grammar you will already know most of it by experience by the time they teach it to you in school.
As I said theory is a great supportive tool to lean against when in doubt, when you are learning something new, or having to communicate a musical idea to another musician, but for me it shouldn't be the primary objective when learning how to play an instrument.
Playing is primary objective, theory is secondary.
When that is said it will kind of depend on the individual and how they happen to learn best though, some prefer to learn by doing with a more intuitive approach to the leaning process, and some are more comfortable with understanding something intellectually first before they actually attempt to apply what they have learned to real life.
Not everyone is wired the same way, some will be best off primarily learning by doing and some will be better off initially learning theory.
For me personally learning theory first just seems kind of backwards.
A bit like mapping out the route before you have decided where to go or something like that.
40Hz explains much better than I do exactly what theory is good for:
Billy Sheehan
Billy's a monster. He can fill any bar in any time.
Here he's boldly supporting a talented guitarist on one of my favourites.
Not a finger to put on his actual play, perhaps except maybe for not baking off sometimes, 2 people shredding at the same time constantly on top of each other get's a little tedious to listen to in the long run, and damn the tone of his bass is highly inappropriate and straight out annoying in that context.
