Most of my rudimentary knowledge of music theory has been acquired on-the-go through inquisitiveness during practical learning of instruments,singing or basic composition.

Initially when attempting to capture my own songs I created guitar lead sheets with chord progression and lyrics. Later, the desire to capture these original songs more formally and to include other instruments, presented the need to understand more theory. At that point I started to gain exposure to the Musescore notation software.


I did venture towards formal study of music theory by reading the book ‘How to Read Music’ by Helen Cooper during my early choral experience with CSI:Halifax Choir. 

As a past Open University student, reading an Alumni newsletter article led me to discover and complete the Open Learn short course ‘An Introduction to Music Theory’. This well defined course featured core concepts as taught in Grades 1 to 3 of the ABRSM syllabus but was not subject to an examination.