There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something but not really understand it

Kettering

I love how this quote can apply to learning music.

You can know how to play a scale, for example, and not understand it. You could also learn to play a piece of music entirely by ear but not understand the symbols on the page.

However, if you do understand, then it gives you the tools to be able to learn other scales or pieces. It gives you more freedom to explore.

While thinking about this quote I found another one by Einstein who puts it in a far more blunt manner, stating; ‘any fool can know. The point is to understand’! 🙂