Definitely agree. I think that's what makes it such a tricky subject for people to get into. You don't need to play an instrument to learn music theory, you don

Definitely agree. I think that's what makes it such a tricky subject for people to get into. You don't need to play an instrument to learn music theory, you don't need music theory to write good music, although you will be applying it without knowing it, you technically don't need to know how to play any instrument to write music, etc. Also, I guess my comment does sort of imply that I meant a classical instrument but arguably some of the things you listed could also be described as instruments, in which case, my point still stands. If you want to learn western music theory with the intentions of writing music, which is what this article is describing more or less, you need to have a way to make western music, whether that be a cello, a tracker, or a gameboy it doesn't matter. You're absolutely correct that we all learn differently but I would bet the people who learned and understood music theory well prior to learning and/or experimenting with some sort of sound generation first are in the minority. Most people will learn both at the same time. Playing music goes along way with reinforcing why things are done the way they are done and reading about the concepts after hearing them, playing them, experimenting with them goes a long way.