I am a high school student considering taking music theory. I have very basic keyboard/piano skills but I have a hard time memorizing notes. I know music theory helps with note memorization, but how helpful would it be for me learning keyboard?
I took music theory after playing the piano for many years, and it does help a great deal with scales, reading music in all sorts of clefs, rhythm - basically everything. It would without doubt benefit you in terms of reading music, but playing does just take a lot of time and effort so I wouldn’t expect to suddenly play like a genius from just theory - you need to practise theory and practical.