Very good, I wish I'd said that.

I agree, although a technical understanding is not the only understanding that matters, and can, on occasion, lead you in the wrong direction (I can think of examples where someone's technical knowledge leads them to dismiss popular music entirely, for example). There's lots to argue and understand about music which has nothing to do with musicology in a technical sense, history, sociology, ritual, religion, all sorts of other elements need to be drawn upon.

Well put. I entirely agree.

-- Ian