I once took a course in Byzantine chant -- all day every day for a week. But I didn't learn a thing. It was all theory. We hardly sang at all. And the theory was explained in terms of western musical theory.

I was so surprised. For one thing, they hadn't mentioned any pre-requisites for the course. And it seems unlikely that the Byzantines learned to chant that way. I thought we were going to learn by listening and practicing.

In the years since then I've learned well enough on my own how to do that kind of chanting. I'm just surprised that I can't always find chords to accompany it. I realize that they didn't know about chords back then, but I would have thought that we who do know about chords could add them in. And in fact I was able to do it with the other 4 tones.