Music theory resources. Musical children but I have no idea where to start

[camaleon]

Hi all,
Both my kids (9 & 11) seem to be very good at music. They have passed grade 5 & 4 violin recently and I now realise they need to catch up with the theoretical part of it. It has been difficult enough to support them without me having any clue about music. But teachers and my husband have been able to guide them. However, we are totally lost with the music part. Are there any resources online/well-known courses/techniques we can try? My husband can read music quite easily. He has never played violin but he would be able to catch up if we get the right material.

Any advice would be very useful. Thank you in advance

I second getting some theory lessons/ courses. I don't remember doing any theory until I needed it to do grade 6 many years ago then I did some individual theory lessons to do the exam. I have just started my Dd on the Lina ng workbooks as she has a 20 min in school lesson and was capable of understanding / learning more than she was but she is very young and is just doing it for a bit of fun ( they have stickers !) . I can't do her instrument but i can help her with basic theory.

Personally I think the Abrsm workbooks are far too painful and arduous. For the 11 year old go in straight at grade 5 using the book "take five and pass first time" by Christopher Dunn, supplemented by working through the grade 5 section of www.mymusictheory.com. Buy a pack of exams and answers and use two of them to practice the skills as you study and the other two as exam practice. Then do another set to tune up. Be strategic - there are only about 5 percentage points (often less) available on musical performance vocab and he could spend a term learning it, so don't - he'll pick up a few points from what he knows. View the composition as a bonus - he needs to aim to be able to pass without points there and then the ones he does get will be upside. The Abrsm books have more complex detail than you need for the exam

Using this method ds1 studied the whole grade in 6 weeks when in year 6 and ds2 in the same I. Year 5 (albeit with me taking him through it)

For the little one perhaps have him do grade 2 this year to get the idea (my little one did it in year 3 to get the hang of notation

You can enter them yourself at a nearby centre.