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MTB Interactive Music Theory is an exciting evolution of this area of study, allowing learners to engage with music theory in an interactive way, listening to music and placing notes on staves in the same way that composers use modern notation software.

MTB’s Music Theory offers three distinct ranges:

  • LEARN: Interactive learning courses with randomised practice questions.
  • PRACTICE: Unlimited randomised practice questions and exams.
  • EXAM: Ofqual regulated, certificated graded qualifications.

For each of these, we have a British or American theory terminology version. British versions use crotchets, minims, semitones etc. American versions use the terms quarter note, half note, half steps etc.

Try our Interactive Theory demo here with a free example chapter taken from our Grade 1 course. (Please note the demo does not save your work and the associated pop up messages to that affect do not appear on the real course):

         British Version Demo                American Version Demo

To see what is included in MTB Theory for each grade you can view our Music Theory Syllabus here.

We’ve also produced a guide for teachers and schools on how best to teach MTB’s Interactive Theory which can be downloaded here.

MTB Theory Introductory Guide

You can also see how MTB Interactive Theory works as an MTB user by signing up as a teacher or learner and going to our make an entry page and selecting the free example chapter. This will show how to enter and assign a Theory course and how to access it form your portal.

MTB’s Music Theory Courses, Practice & Exams are available from Foundation to Grade 5, with Grades 6-8 in all theory products due to launch in 2024.

MTB Music Theory has been produced in partnership with Artusi who provided the fantastic technology to make our interactive Music Theory a reality.

To learn more about each of these products press the + button below:

LEARN

MTB has produced learning courses from Foundation to Grade 5 which give students instructional material explaining the concepts behind theory in a number of chapters for each grade. Along with this instructional material, there are questions to practise the concepts being taught in the instruction material. These allow you to complete a range of interactive question types including: placing notes on staves, writing key signatures, responding to audio samples, multiple choice questions, playing and interacting with a virtual keyboard and more.

You can generate a new set of randomised questions on your courses by simply starting a new assignment. You can also save your progress using the save button on the bottom right of the page. This will allow you to return to the existing course and questions where you left off, by clicking to continue the assignment.

You can also choose whether to have immediate feedback turned on or off on Courses. Turning it on will mean after each question you will see if it’s right or wrong, while turning it off will allow you to view which questions were correct at the end of the chapter.

PRACTICE

MTB’s Theory Practice provides unlimited practice questions and exams. Our Theory Practice is designed to mirror the format of our Graded Theory Exams, so completing the whole practice assignment will be equivalent in length to completing the whole graded exam.

With Theory Practice Questions you can choose to have feedback turned on or off using the toggle feedback button on the bottom right of the screen when in your assignment. With feedback turned on, you will receive immediate feedback on whether your answer is right or wrong. With feedback turned off, you will not see which questions you got right but can view this at the end of the assignment by turning feedback on again. This enables you to see your marks and individual question feedback.

With MTB Practice Exams feedback is turned off and you have the same amount of time as the real exam to complete the paper, candidates can therefore do an entire practice exam in exam conditions ahead of taking their graded exam. Once the exam is submitted or the time ends then you and your teacher can view your result and what was answered correctly and incorrectly but answers cannot be changed.

You can generate unlimited randomised questions and practice exams by simply starting a new assignment each time. You can also save your progress using the save button on the bottom right of the page which will allow you to return to the existing set of questions where you left off, by clicking ‘continue’ on the relevant assignment.

EXAM

Our Graded Exams can be entered online at any time with the entry system being similar to our graded instrumental exams. There is the additional option of assigning the exam to yourself or to someone else during entry. Within 3 working days from the exam entry you will receive the activation link and token to start your exam. The exam can be taken flexibly any time within 1 year of the entry date once this is received.

Theory exams will be started via the activation link and conducted on a verification system which records the candidate in video and the candidate’s screen. Any violations such as searching for answers or having help from another person will cause the exam to be disqualified and the result voided.  Further sanctions for the candidate and/or centre for exam violations may be made depending on the specific circumstances.

The rules for the Theory exam can be found here: Theory Exam Rules

There will be a time limit for each exam which is listed below:

  • Foundation: 45 minutes
  • Grade 1: 60 minutes
  • Grade 2: 75 minutes
  • Grade 3: 75 minutes
  • Grade 4: 90 minutes
  • Grade 5: 90 minutes

Marks will be awarded out of 100 with the same award structure as our instrumental grades.

Results and a marksheet will be received by the candidate and centre within 2 weeks once the verification checks have been completed by the MTB team, with a Marksheet link sent by email.

 

Music Theory Pricing

Please press the + below to view our Music Theory pricing. There is also site license pricing available for Schools or Organisations who will be purchasing larger quantities for whole classes, please contact MTB on development@mtbexams.com for this pricing.

Course pricing

Music Theory Courses
Foundation £7.49
Grade 1 £7.99
Grade 2 £8.49
Grade 3 £8.99
Grade 4 £9.49
Grade 5 £9.99
Grade 6 Coming 2024
Grade 7 Coming 2024
Grade 8 Coming 2024

Practice pricing

Music Theory Practice
Foundation £5.99
Grade 1 £6.49
Grade 2 £6.99
Grade 3 £7.49
Grade 4 £7.99
Grade 5 £8.49
Grade 6 Coming 2024
Grade 7 Coming 2024
Grade 8 Coming 2024

Exam pricing

Music Theory Grades
Foundation £33
Grade 1 £36
Grade 2 £39
Grade 3 £42
Grade 4 £45
Grade 5 £49
Grade 6 Coming 2024
Grade 7 Coming 2024
Grade 8 Coming 2024

Purchasing & entering MTB Theory

It is recommended that each student has their own purchased Course/Practice.

You can ask students to purchase Theory Courses and Practice themselves. If they enter your teacher or school’s centre number* during the entry process, the teacher or school will receive free access to the Theory Courses and Practice they have bought, allowing you to view your student’s progress and answers.

However, if preferred, teachers/schools are able to purchase any Theory products for their students using the ‘someone else’ option during the purchase process and assign them to each student. In either case, both the registered centre and student will have access to the purchased Theory on their respective MTB accounts/portals.

*Teachers or schools receive their own ‘centre number’ when signing up and registering with MTB Exams. You can find this number under ‘My Account’ on the top right when logged into the website.

Schools/Music Schools: Where you have multiple teaching staff working as part of one school who do not have access to log into the school’s MTB centre account, it is suggested that theory teachers sign up with MTB Exams as ‘individual teachers’ to receive their own centre number and when purchasing Theory Courses or Practice, use these centre numbers to allow teachers to access and view their student’s progress and answers.

"So far, despite music theory being a typically tough sell to the 16-19 year old age bracket, the students have engaged very well with the software. Students are finding it easy to use, engaging and, most importantly, they are learning new concepts well through the chapters in the course packages. Some students have even called it ‘fun’, and a lot of them have expressed sentiments such as ‘I’ve learned more with this in an hour than I did at GCSE’(!!!). A number of students have also enjoyed voluntarily competing with each other as they work through the chapters. I’ve rarely seen students so well motivated to excel in music theory. The system of enrolling each student onto an MTB course is an effective way to deliver music theory lessons, as it allows the students to choose their focus and identify their weaknesses straight away. This, in turn, frees me up to help the students individually, rather than delivering a one size that doesn’t quite fit all lesson to the entire class."

Liz Searle, Reigate College

Music Theory FAQS

How do I purchase an MTB Theory product?

Theory Courses, Practice & Exams can all be purchased on the Make an Entry page.

On the entry page there is the option to switch between our Instrumental Grades and Music Theory at the top of the page. From here you can then select your Music Theory Course, Practice or Exam and select whether it will be in British or American terminology.

During the entry process you will be asked:  “Who needs access to this course/exam?”

Theory courses/exams are accessed via your MTB exam portal. If you or someone else (such as a family member) will be accessing the exam/course with your MTB login, then please select ‘Myself’.

If this course/exam is going to be accessed by someone else not using your login (such as a student) then please select ‘Someone Else’ and provide their email. They will receive an email with instructions on how to access their course/exam.

If this person already has an account with MTB please ensure to use the email address already registered to their account. If they don’t have an account, this email will be used to create their new MTB account and they will be emailed to complete their sign up.

How do I access my Theory purchase?

Purchased Theory Courses, Practice & Exams can all be accessed via your exam portal, the button for which is found at the top of the website.

Once on the Portal on your ‘My Exams/Courses’ page you will you will see a list of your purchased Theory products and Instrumental Exams.  You can filter or search the reference for the product in question and on the right of the purchased Theory product you will see a Green ‘Start’ button, or in the case of an exam you will receive an email within 3 working days of entry with your exam link and login details. These will launch your Theory product in the Artusi/MTB platform and you will be able to access your Theory Course, Practice or Exam.

How do teachers/centres access MTB Theory?

With our Interactive Theory, registered MTB Centres receive free access on their exam portal to any theory course or practice purchased by one of their students.

Just ask your students to put in your centre number during the entry process in the same way as our instrumental grade entries.  (Your centre number can be found on your ‘my account’ page). After the purchase a copy of the Theory course/practice purchased will appear on your centre exam portal as well as your student’s portal.

Centres also have the option to make the entry/purchase the Theory Course/Practice for their student from their account using the someone else feature to assign the Theory to their student.  In this case they will also receive access to the Theory purchased on their account.

Links to take the exam are sent to the email of the person who purchased the exam.

How long do I have access to my Theory purchases for?

MTB’s Theory Courses & Practice grant access to our interactive software for a single year after purchase.

Theory Exams can only be taken once per purchase and can be taken up to one year from purchase.

Can I use MTB Theory for classroom or group teaching?

Yes, MTB Interactive Theory can be used for classroom/group teaching and there are different suggested routes depending on the devices available and organisation preferences. Please download our helpful Teacher & School Theory Guide here.

There is also site license pricing available for Schools and Organisations who will be purchasing higher volumes for whole classes.  Please contact development@mtbexams.com for this pricing.

Option 1: All students have access to an individual electronic device and learner email logins:

  • In this scenario the students can all work through either the same or different grade courses and practice exams from their learner portal. The teacher can view marks and progress from their own portal. The teacher can go through elements of the course and practice questions while students try various randomised questions in that area.
  • When taking a graded exam, the students could all take the exam together in class on their own devices with the teacher present as a silent observer as long as students are not able to see each other’s screens and do not communicate during the assessment. Alternatively, students can take the exam at home individually.

Option 2: The students do not have access to personal devices and email logins in the lesson but do at home:

  • In this scenario the teacher can present the course from their own computer, ideally using a large screen at the front of the class. Teachers have the ability to print off course and practice exam worksheets (right click on the course/practice page and select print) and give them to students to complete during the lesson. The students can also work on any Theory Course chapters or Practice Exams for homework and their work/results can be viewed at any time by the teacher.
  • It is an option for the school to purchase a single course for the teacher to use as instruction material during the lesson and to have the students purchase only the Theory Practice questions and any graded exams. This does limit their ability to learn or practise individual sections of the course for homework using their devices, but they can complete practice exam questions at home.
  • The graded exam will need to be conducted by the student at home on their own device.

Schools/Music Schools: Where you have multiple teaching staff working as part of one school who do not have access to log into the school’s MTB centre account, it is suggested that theory teachers sign up with MTB Exams as ‘individual teachers’ to receive their own centre number and when purchasing Theory Courses or Practice, use these centre numbers to allow teachers to access and view their student’s progress and answers.

How does the randomisation work?

MTB’s Theory Courses, Practice & exams contain unlimited randomised questions.  These questions are created using set parameters but are randomly generated each time.

You can create a new set of randomised questions by selecting the start new assignment button on a Course or Practice grade, while you can click on any existing assignment to continue working on the existing set of generated questions.  These existing assignments will not generate new questions when left and accessed again.

MTB Centres receive access to their students’ Theory Courses/Practice that they are linked to during the entry process, these allow the teacher to see the structure of the Course/Practice and see their student’s saved answers and progress.  The student’s progress can be seen by selecting the specific student’s course from the exam portal and pressing start. Please note that the teacher will only see saved and completed assignments/answers and will not see real time answers being submitted. The student will also see any saved answers/progress completed by the teacher in the same way on the student’s course/practice.

How does Theory progress tracking work?

While completing MTB Theory Courses or Practice you will see a progress bar at the bottom of the page for answered questions.  You will also be able to see the % of correct/incorrect questions next to the assignment on the landing page of the Theory Course/Practice that you go to from the MTB homepage.

Teachers/centres whose centre number was linked during entry can also see their students’ Theory Course/Practice progress and results.

Can I use MTB's Grade 5 Theory for ABRSM Instrumental Grades 6-8?

Yes, ABRSM accepts MTB Grade 5 Theory as an alternative prerequisite so any candidates who have passed MTB Grade 5 Theory will be able to enter for an ABRSM higher grade Practical or Performance Grade exams.

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