If you’re watching my YouTube Music Theory lessons I want you to get the maximum benefit from my tutorials, so that your knowledge is secure and you will be ready for your exam. There are study techniques that can help you to retain knowledge more securely, and I discuss psychological theories which aid memory retention. I also explain some short-cuts to help you navigate quickly around the videos. Make sure you are making the most of your study time!

Being alone isn’t the same as being lonely. In order to progress and succeed in any discipline, it’s necessary to spend long hours alone. As a musician we spend long hours practising, but because our brain is busily employed the time flies by and we can then feel that sense of satisfaction. No doubt we all have our down days; no man is an island. However, being alone isn’t necessarily always a negative situation. Try looking at a period of solitude as a positive opportunity and the world looks like a different place.

Writing music notation neatly takes a little bit of practise, but if you have the right tools the job is so much easier. Tidy music manuscript could be as simple as making sure you have the right pencil for the job. However, not all pencils are the same. I discuss which pencils are best for writing music with and I explain why. I also give a demonstration of what effects different pencils have ranging from 6H to 8B.

My academic journey wasn’t straightforward. Life is never a simple, straight path - the journey twists and turns, but keeps on unfolding under our feet. Reorganising a bookcase revealed strategic points in my education history and got me thinking about how, even though it’s a winding road, a progression of study had led me along a path that I didn’t even know I was on for many years. Success can’t always be measured by a single indicator and life is always about balancing priorites. I do love a good sort out and, while I was organising my book shelves, I was also sorting out my mind.