Chad---
Perhaps you are trying to get to much musical information into your brain at once! I have a habit of doing that as well, fortunately in most of my endeavors I can absorb that info like a sponge when I am really into it. This music theory business is different though- the aural part is what slows us down- it apparently takes more time to absorb the sound into our minds than the facts. And "knowing" the sounds are what helps us really know the music facts- as opposed to just memorizing those musical facts. The human brain can only memorize so much info before new memorized info pushes the previously memorized stuff out.
Yep, you got me pegged. All my life, learning has been easy (except for math, I was never good at anything mathematical). School was a joke to me, even honors classes. I was the guy who never studied. Never took notes. Just sat and listened....cool...I got it. Next class please. Did this all through college. I do this in my work too. I'll sit in a meeting and people will be scribbling away...I just pay attention and internalize it. I also do quite a bit of teaching. Don't use a book for anything other than referring to page numbers and diagrams. I teach out of my head.
Much of the things I'm good at I was never taught. I just figured it out logically. Did a little research. Asked a few questions, and bam....I got it.
So imagine the frustration when I sit down to learn music and most of it makes no sense to me. I play an exercise and my fingers trip over themselves. I spend hours working on something and see no benefit from it. It's the most challenging thing I've ever done, and that's one of the things that I like about it. I had no delusions that it would be easy to learn to play. What I'm finding most difficult to accept is not having a defined goal.
Some people might strive to play their favorite song, or imitate a Jaco tune, but my goal is much broader. I just wanna play. I wanna play anything. If someone hums a tune, I want to grab my bass and play along. My musical tastes are so varied that I would never pigeon hole myself by saying I'm a rock player, a blues player, a jazz player, etc. I want to be a musician. Country, bluegrass, jazz, blues, reggae, rock....whatever....bring it on.
Because of this, I feel like I need to learn more than just how to play. I need to learn music. I hear people talking about different styles of playing and I have no idea what they mean. Each genre seems to be subdivided into smaller segments which have "rules" that if violated can lead to violent throwing of cymbals and such. How do you learn these rules?? I don't need to be decapitated by any cymbals.
I only know two different kinds of music. Good music, and bad music. I like good music. I can't tell you what makes jazz different than rock. If it's a good song, it's a good song. I also can't tell you what makes a song good, but I know it when I hear it. I'm not talking about a song that's difficult to play. Good music can be simple and easy to play. Just because it's difficult to play, doesn't make it good music.
Learning scales, modes, chords, and playing exercises is just a time thing. Practice will solve any issues I have with these. But knowing when to apply them is the key. There is an old saying, "A weapon unused is a useless weapon" and that's true. I might have all the playing ability in the world, but without knowledge of how to apply it, what good is it?
Walking lines, arpeggios, voice leading, turnarounds.....might as well be speaking greek. I actually believe the mode names ARE greek. I'll have a mixolydian gyro sandwich and some ionian hummus please.
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