--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: We must see that music theory is not only…" description: "\"We must see that music theory is not only about music, but about how people process it. To understand any art, we must look below its surface into the ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d3e/marvin-minsky-7760_absorption_we-must-see-that-music-theory-is-not-onl_1722817.jpg" --- # We must see that music theory is not only about music, but… ![“We must see that music theory is not only about music, but about how people process it. To understand any art, we must look below its surface into the psychological details of its creation and absorption.” quote by Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d3e/marvin-minsky-7760_absorption_we-must-see-that-music-theory-is-not-onl_1722817.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d3e/marvin-minsky-7760_absorption_we-must-see-that-music-theory-is-not-onl_1722817.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d3e/marvin-minsky-7760_absorption_we-must-see-that-music-theory-is-not-onl_1722817.jpg) > “We must see that music theory is not only about music, but about how people process it. To understand any art, we must look below its surface into the psychological details of its creation and absorption.” [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Music theory extends beyond notes, revealing cognitive processes that shape how we create and experience art. **In simple terms:** Understanding music reveals how minds work. Key Takeaway Study psychology to deepen artistic insight. Themes creativity psychology education Mood thoughtful inquisitive Type educational philosophical When to use this quote - music education - art therapy - design thinking Key Concepts cognitive science aesthetics learning theory Questions to Reflect On - How does cognition influence artistic preference? - What role does emotion play in learning music? A Different Perspective Focusing only on technical aspects may ignore emotional resonance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Creation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/creation/) [Music](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/music/) [Music theory](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/music-theory/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Process](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/process/) [Psychological](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychological/) [Song](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/song/) ## Related quotes > [Many musicians are fabulously skilled at playing the black dots on the printed page, but mystified by how the dots got there in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-nachmanovitch/many-musicians-are-fabulously-skilled-at-playing-the-black-dots-on/) [Stephen Nachmanovitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-nachmanovitch/) > [“So I immediately joined Sutton College of Music in Grove Road, Sutton to thoroughly learn theory of music. Over and over again, I would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-fox/so-i-immediately-joined-sutton-college-of-music-in-grove-road-sutton/) [John Fox](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-fox/) > [My theory. Music can fix anything. Anything.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/asa-butterfield/my-theory-music-can-fix-anything-anything/) [Asa Butterfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/asa-butterfield/) > [I've come up with the theory that the music is within. We don't bring it in; it's already there. We have to figure out…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/howard-roberts/i-ve-come-up-with-the-theory-that-the-music-is-within-we-don-t-bring/) [Howard Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/howard-roberts/) > [If we taught music the way we try to teach engineering, in an unbroken four year course, we could end up with all theory…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-kettering/if-we-taught-music-the-way-we-try-to-teach-engineering-in-an-unbroken/) [Charles Kettering](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-kettering/) > [I have a theory - if the music is good and you have good musicians, the name doesn't matter that much. There are a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joey-tempest/i-have-a-theory-if-the-music-is-good-and-you-have-good-musicians-the/) [Joey Tempest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joey-tempest/) > [I'm hopeless at playing scales. Try and be instinctive first and analytic afterwords, although it's good to study the theory of music.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-may/i-m-hopeless-at-playing-scales-try-and-be-instinctive-first-and/) [Brian May](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-may/) > [Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? ...people who try to explain pictures are usually barking…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-picasso/everyone-wants-to-understand-art-why-not-try-to-understand-the-song/) [Pablo Picasso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-picasso/) > [“I understand that art is a necessary component of a civilized society, but you cannot just go around shooting people. That's going to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-wilson/i-understand-that-art-is-a-necessary-component-of-a-civilized-society/) [Kevin Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-wilson/) > [“Only someone who doesn’t understand art tells an artist their art somehow failed. How the fuck can art fail? Art can’t be graded, because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-smith/only-someone-who-doesn-t-understand-art-tells-an-artist-their-art/) [Kevin Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-smith/) > [“The one who says he doesn't understand anything about art, doesn't know himself.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jostein-gaarder/the-one-who-says-he-doesn-t-understand-anything-about-art-doesn-t/) [Jostein Gaarder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jostein-gaarder/) > [A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result without taking the time to delve deeply…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miyamoto-musashi/a-man-cannot-understand-the-art-he-is-studying-if-he-only-looks-for/) [Miyamoto Musashi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miyamoto-musashi/) > [“We are accustomed to understand art to be only what we hear and see in theaters, concerts, and exhibitions, together with buildings, statues, poems,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/we-are-accustomed-to-understand-art-to-be-only-what-we-hear-and-see/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [Thought is more important than art…To revere art and have no understanding of the process that forces it into existence, is finally not even…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amiri-baraka/thought-is-more-important-than-art-to-revere-art-and-have-no/) [Amiri Baraka](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amiri-baraka/) > [“When you realise the circle is a circle, you can understand art”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/greta-bellamacina/when-you-realise-the-circle-is-a-circle-you-can-understand-art/) [Greta Bellamacina](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/greta-bellamacina/) ## More by Marvin Minsky > [Theorems often tell us complex truths about the simple things, but only rarely tell us simple truths about the complex ones. To believe otherwise…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/theorems-often-tell-us-complex-truths-about-the-simple-things-but/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [We wanted to solve robot problems and needed some vision, action, reasoning, planning, and so forth. We even used some structural learning, such as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/we-wanted-to-solve-robot-problems-and-needed-some-vision-action/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [We rarely recognize how wonderful it is that a person can traverse an entire lifetime without making a single really serious mistake — like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/we-rarely-recognize-how-wonderful-it-is-that-a-person-can-traverse-an/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [Each practitioner thinks there's one magic way to get a machine to be smart, and so they're all wasting their time in a sense.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/each-practitioner-thinks-there-s-one-magic-way-to-get-a-machine-to-be/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [To say that the universe exists is silly, because it says that the universe is one of the things in the universe. So there's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/to-say-that-the-universe-exists-is-silly-because-it-says-that-the/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/you-don-t-understand-anything-until-you-learn-it-more-than-one-way/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [ A couple of hundred years from now, maybe \[science fiction writers\] Isaac Asimov and Fred Pohl will be considered the important philosophers of the… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/a-couple-of-hundred-years-from-now-maybe-science-fiction-writers/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [All intelligent problem solvers are subject to the same ultimate constraints - limitations on space, time, and materials.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/all-intelligent-problem-solvers-are-subject-to-the-same-ultimate/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [“But there’s a big difference between “impossible” and “hard to imagine.” The first is about it; the second is about you!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/but-there-s-a-big-difference-between-impossible-and-hard-to-imagine/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [But the big feature of human-level intelligence is not what it does what it is works but what it does when it's stuck.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/but-the-big-feature-of-human-level-intelligence-is-not-what-it-does/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/what-magical-trick-makes-us-intelligent-the-trick-is-that-there-is-no/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [Everything, including that which happens in our brains, depends on these and only on these: A set of fixed, deterministic laws. A purely random…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/everything-including-that-which-happens-in-our-brains-depends-on/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [I believed in realism, as summarized by John McCarthy's comment to the effect that if we worked really hard, we'd have an intelligent system…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/i-believed-in-realism-as-summarized-by-john-mccarthy-s-comment-to-the/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [By the way, it was his simulations that helped out in Jurassic Park - without them, there would have been only a few dinosaurs.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/by-the-way-it-was-his-simulations-that-helped-out-in-jurassic-park/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) > [If you just have a single problem to solve, then fine, go ahead and use a neural network. But if you want to do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marvin-minsky/if-you-just-have-a-single-problem-to-solve-then-fine-go-ahead-and-use/) [Marvin Minsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) [Explore all 87 Marvin Minsky quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marvin-minsky/) ## More Absorption quotes > [In fact, studies show that vegans tend to get more iron than meat eaters. Vitamin C from fruits and vegetables increases iron absorption. Meanwhile,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sharon-gannon/in-fact-studies-show-that-vegans-tend-to-get-more-iron-than-meat/) [Sharon Gannon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sharon-gannon/) > [I am not the center of the universe. And it's a lesson that I keep having to learn; it's my ongoing work, I'd say.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrick-fabian/i-am-not-the-center-of-the-universe-and-it-s-a-lesson-that-i-keep/) [Patrick Fabian](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrick-fabian/) > [The greatness of peoples springs from their ability to grasp the grand conceptions of being. It is the absorption of a people, of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-crummell/the-greatness-of-peoples-springs-from-their-ability-to-grasp-the/) [Alexander Crummell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-crummell/) > [Melancholy betrays the world for the sake of knowledge. But in its tenacious self-absorption it embraces dead objects in its contemplation, in order to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-benjamin/melancholy-betrays-the-world-for-the-sake-of-knowledge-but-in-its/) [Walter Benjamin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-benjamin/) > [I was in a garden at the Rodin Museum. For a few minutes I was alone, sitting on a bench between two long hedges…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/irving-howe/i-was-in-a-garden-at-the-rodin-museum-for-a-few-minutes-i-was-alone/) [Irving Howe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/irving-howe/) > [Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it but through their absorption in that they also realize…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-vivekananda/those-who-work-at-a-thing-heart-and-soul-not-only-achieve-success-in/) [Swami Vivekananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-vivekananda/) > [Self-absorption intensifies isolation, but permits it to go unnoticed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-cooley/self-absorption-intensifies-isolation-but-permits-it-to-go-unnoticed/) [Mason Cooley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-cooley/) > [Life is a state of constant radiation and absorption; to exist is to radiate; to exist is to be the recipient of radiations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-george-jordan/life-is-a-state-of-constant-radiation-and-absorption-to-exist-is-to/) [William George Jordan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-george-jordan/) > [I had learned that science is a rewarding, active process of discovery, not the passive absorption of what others had discovered.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/harold-e-varmus/i-had-learned-that-science-is-a-rewarding-active-process-of-discovery/) [Harold E. Varmus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/harold-e-varmus/) > [Selfishness and self-absorption are deadly charm-exterminators.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/loretta-young/selfishness-and-self-absorption-are-deadly-charm-exterminators/) [Loretta Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/loretta-young/) > [Prayer gives us relief from the melancholy burden of self-absorption .](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/timothy-keller/prayer-gives-us-relief-from-the-melancholy-burden-of-self-absorption/) [Timothy Keller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/timothy-keller/) > [ \[Pope Francis\]sees a world in need of the Gospel, and of friendship with Jesus Christ, as an antidote to the self-absorption and loneliness that… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-weigel/pope-francis-sees-a-world-in-need-of-the-gospel-and-of-friendship/) [George Weigel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-weigel/) > [The ecstasy and completion of absorption in God is so fantastic that you can't possibly have lost anything because all the things you've always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-lenz/the-ecstasy-and-completion-of-absorption-in-god-is-so-fantastic-that/) [Frederick Lenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-lenz/) > [ \[T\]he mass-man sees in the State an anonymous power, and feeling himself, like it, anonymous, he believes that the State is something of his… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jose-ortega-y-gasset/t-he-mass-man-sees-in-the-state-an-anonymous-power-and-feeling/) [Jose Ortega y Gasset](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jose-ortega-y-gasset/) > [“But the work had told upon the Editor. Work of that sort carries its penalties with it. Success means absorption, and absorption spells softening…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/p-g-wodehouse/but-the-work-had-told-upon-the-editor-work-of-that-sort-carries-its/) [P.G. Wodehouse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/p-g-wodehouse/) Browse all 118 Absorption quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "We must see that music theory is not only about music, but about how people process it. 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