Born in Nordhorn, Helms studied school music (including philosophy, psychology and education) and geography as well as musicology (including ethnomusicology) in Hanover, Marburg and Berlin from 1958. In 1967, his doctorate was awarded the a PhD degree from the Free University of Berlin with a dissertation on Die Melodiebildung in den Liedern von J. Brahms und ihr Verhältnis zu Volksliedern und volkstümlichen Weisen. He passed the first and second Staatsexamen in 1964 in Berlin and 1968 in Kassel. Afterwards he worked as a teacher in Göttingen.
