its always good to approach music from a different perspective every once in a while. music theory i found very useful for when i was stuck for something to play, i could improvise alot more easily because i knew what chords and scales i was playing. what key changes i could make without it sounding pie eyed. like anything theres a tendancy to overdo it and produce utter wank. i went through a phase of rattling off scales on guitar like there was no tommorow to make up for the fact i was a pretty uninspired guitarist. so i got bored with that and got interested in industrial music which is, essentially noise. had a go at writing that, but it became a cliche. then i started producing. dissected a few trance songs like for an angel and salt water and cafe del mar. 90% of the stuff i write now is trance. or i start something with the intention of not writing trance and it somehow ends up as trance. thats only because it has been occupying my mind alot lately and in the past year ive invested a lot of time and effort into what goes into making that trance sound. if i get stuck for an idea, i can always twist it into a generic trance tune, because i know alot of the ins and outs of making very generic trance - ive practically ate slept and breathed it for the past year.
my advice, music theory is a wonderful thing to learn if you can afford to get classical training. or if you cant its worth learning anyway by whatever means you can. whats not so good is to let it dominate your view of what music can and should be. as long as you dont let your knowledge of musical theory narrow your creative horizons i cant see how it could be detrimental to you in any way. its easy to let things narrow your creativity though, particularly if you like a certain style of music or a certain way of writing music and if you let these become steadfast rules for making music. keep in mind, there are no rules. and never lose touch with your musical roots. you'll be fine. and you'll be able to wank that keyboard when you cant think of what to play next. which has its advantages in tricky situations.
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