Comment by maxbendick

Theory and practice are both important. A few analogues:

- fundamentals on an instrument vs performance

- low-level graphics programming vs using a game engine

- comp sci vs software engineering

The theory side here gets to the root of things, is valid for any sort of DAW/DSP software, and has the benefit of being easier to teach. Practice is obviously more important though, especially in the arts. It's better to grope in the dark than do nothing.