Well, without this knowledge a student remains half-illiterate in music, believe me or not; s/he is not able to practically relate things, to see classes of things, BIG patterns. It’s like seeing a large number of trees without understanding that this is a forest. There are teachers around, who specialize in musical theory. The best way for studying the theory is to be in a small group, where the students develop their musical abilities incredibly well and even faster than one-on-one with a teacher.

Number one help in learning musical theory is solfège, or solfeggio, which is singing notes in different keys from a sheet solmizating them, recognizing musical intervals and chords by ear, writing musical dictations, thus getting the most important practical knowledge about what music is made of in general. It would be perfect, if you can afford solfeggio classes; nothing can completely substitute it. There is good news, though: you can get decent computer apps. The tough part is – most likely, you will have to handle it on your own.

A number of parents asked me what computer apps on musical theory I could recommend. Music Ace would do for the young beginners. For more advanced students it’s definitely Practica Musica, the best I’ve found so far. This app is not for young beginners and it’s not a game-like application, but it’s ample, with a great variety of practical exercises for musical notation, ear training etc, etc. There is a free on-line text book for this application on the producer’s site; they also have many other musical educational applications to offer.