"What is music theory?"

Anyone have a short answer to this question when asked by a non-musician?

Someone (a drummer) also asked me 'What's MIDI?' and I didn't even want to open that can of worms.

Per one music dictionary I have: 'The study of the elements of musical composition.' I sometimes tell people that it is the grammar of music.

My approach would be to compare it to architecture: What most people see is just a (nice) outside of a building, but an architect also needs to know a lot about construction techniques, materials, the requirements of a specific use of the building, e.g. a church or a school or a house. Music theory would be the same thing but to construct pieces of music, e.g. harmony and rythm... But maybe I'm wrong? I'm not a professional music theorist

It's everything about music, except for the actual playing. )

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MIDI is very simple. You don't even have to say that MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface to explain it. Simply state that it is computer language to express musical notes, so electronic instruments can talk to computers and vice versa.

Gary (that's so easy even I understand it) Rimar

But the unitiated don't understand the difference between recorded sound, and sound that is reproduced from MIDI data.

I've tried to put myself in the shoes of somebody who has no knowledge of music technology, and I just can't do it.

In western world music theory: A convention, in which we are trained to regconize, identify and appreciate, the notation of time, pitch and rhythm; major, minor scale; major & minor relation; interval of major perfect, minor diminished and augmented; triad and its derivations. Major and minor scale are the most frequently used scales in western music. All radio songs/tunes has all the the above.

Chinese, Indian, African and many other cultures have different music notation, convention, structure and tonal pitches from different instruments foreign to western music.

Show someone a piece of sheet music. That's pretty much instructions for how to play a piece of music, instruments, tempo, key signature, dynamics, notes, sustain pedal points etc etc. Midi is basically sheet music in a format that is easy for computer _software_ to use.

An analogy in-between sheet music and midi is the piano roll with punched out holes that make a piano play by itself. A physical process you can see. There's no confusion between a piece of paper full of holes and the strings on a piano vibrating or a cassette tape of said performance.

Take the piano roll home where you haven't got a piano it aint going to play, put it on a different piano and it'll sound like that piano instead. Stick the cassette tape in a hi-fi and it'll sound like a recording of the first piano.

Computer software just makes it more flexible [with of course the digital domain's own advantages and disadvantages]

Don't. Who wants to be taught something by someone who doesn't understand it, even if they are only pretending not to?

Put yourself in the position of someone who understands it well enough to explain it to someone else. That might be more difficult than understanding it, it's certainly not the same thing.

The difficulty is in being honest about whether it's the teacher, the pupil or the approach that's failing if the message doesn't get across - regardless the teacher probably learns more in the process than the pupil :o)

Good thing he didn't want to open the 'what is MIDI?' can of worms

Music Theory Simple Definition - You learn about all the chords and all the chord progressions.

MIDI Simple Definition - You get a MIDI cable to hook up two synths or a synth to a computer.

MIDI - (if you want to go deeper but careful you might lose them here) - Its like a digital player piano.