This is one of the many debates amongst musicians. On one hand, you have people who really advocate for studying the building blocks of music so that you can become better, in theory (badum tss! :P) On the other, you have people who think that learning all that stuff is a waste of time and not even necessary to have a good experience as a musician, songwriter, etc.

As always, I throw in my two cents on this topic, along with a personal story about how learning theory made me a better player all around. For the second part of the episode, I give the names of famous musicians who never studied music or theory formally, yet they have all become very successful in their own right. Some of the names on that list might surprise you ...