Why We Learn Music Backwards - Easy Key
- May 9
- 2 min read
How discovering relative pitch, jazz theory, and pattern recognition completely changed the way I understood music.
Music Is Medicine is a podcast and reflection series exploring music, creativity, sound, meditation, and deep listening.
For many years I struggled to understand why music theory felt so difficult… even after years of practice.
I could sight read.I could improvise.I could memorise key signatures.
But my ear still felt strangely disconnected from the music itself.
In this podcast episode, I share the deeply personal story behind The Easy Key and the discoveries that completely transformed the way I understand music, ear training, improvisation, and musical intuition.
“I realised we often learn music backwards — algebra first… sound second.”
From traumatic childhood music lessons…
to obsessive practice routines…
to discovering American Jazz Theory and relative pitch training at Box Hill TAFE in Melbourne…
this journey eventually led me to a powerful realisation:
Many of us may actually be learning music backwards.
This episode explores:
music as language
interval recognition
emotional relationships between sound
pattern recognition
improvisation
and how music can become intuitive when we learn through relationships rather than memorisation.
“The ear recognises relationships… not letters.”
One of the biggest revelations I had while studying music was realising that intervals have emotional flavours.
Some sounds feel calm.
Some unresolved.
Some warm.
Some cold.
Some deeply emotional.
And once these sounds become associated with numbers and feeling rather than abstract labels… the ear begins to understand music naturally.
This became the philosophical foundation behind The Easy Key.
What I wanted to create was not simply another theory tool… but a bridge between the intellectual and intuitive sides of music.
Something visual.
Something practical.
Something that helped students immediately recognise patterns the way many guitarists naturally do.
After decades of teaching music full-time, I’ve realised that most people do not struggle because music is too complicated.
They struggle because they are often taught in a way that disconnects sound from understanding.
At its heart, this is not just a discussion about theory…
but about reconnecting music to feeling, listening, creativity, and human experience.
I hope this episode helps anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by music theory or disconnected from their musical intuition.
Download The Easy Key
Kindest,Mat
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