Knowledge is good, if it does not interfere with feeling. All art is about expressing feelings. Technique and "tools" are the way the artist expresses feelings, but the "audience" is already lost if they look for the "tools" to justify the emotion. If you search for the tools before "experiencing" the work, you are lost.
Webern and Albert Ayler are primarily about MELODY. They have different ways of arriving there, and they deliver different melodies. That is the magic.
It is really that simple. Forget what you learned. It may be of use later.