![]() ![]() I put down the ones I personally use most.Ĭertainly there are times when it is advisable to choose "5, 4, 2, 1" for left-hand arpeggio fingering, but I consider it the exception to the rule. You may not agree with every one of my arpeggio or scale fingerings. Two-octave scales, chord inversions and arpeggios will wait until they seem appropriate. Students will move on to the other keys before they have finished the full page of C. Then (and this is their favorite!) they must figure out the 3-chord cadence for that key, and use those inversions in the accompaniment. Then I ask for a LH single bass note with a RH full triad (3 notes). Then we execute a quick duet, by rote, with me on a made-up-on-the-spot melody, and them "pounding" away on chords.įirst they play open chords, Left Hand, Right Hand, L,R,L,R, etc. I make them (with my assistance, during lesson time) figure out what the chords will be for the key of the day (we work our way slowly around a Circle of 5ths, hand-drawn by me - or by them! - on their lesson sheet each week, with their assistance). Louie Louie Wannabe is my current favorite. (And usually I say nothing about the chord on the seventh step of the scale and how it is different from all the rest that would be too much information at this time!)Īnd my favorite way to actually drum the 3 main chords into their fingers (and brains) is to use an energetic song. My favorite way to talk about "The Three Main Chords" is to play the regular scale slowly with a left-hand finger while making matching chords in the right hand.īoth hands move up the octave as I say, "The one chord, the two chord, three chord, four chord." etc. When they have memorized it, then we start it again in a different key! Same thing with Twinkle, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and others. I try to keep reinforcing their grasp of the theory by coming at it from different angles, such as playing "Louie Louie", but using major chords only (the real version has one minor chord). The concept of the I, IV and V chords seems obvious to piano teachers who've been thinking that way for years, but the connections aren't at all apparent to some young students. In fact, once piano students have mastered parallel scales in one key, it becomes much easier to accomplish them in all 12 major scales, and we just go straight to parallel scales. ![]() Of course, this becomes much harder in the later scales, when black notes enter the picture! Please scroll down the page for the download links. We don't move in a hurry - on their assignment sheet, I will write "Key of C sheet, #1" until they can do it quickly with no prompting.Įventually, they will drop the easiest numbers off their assignment and pick up the harder techniques, such as chord inversions and arpeggios: This won't be until my piano students are able to read the chord notes in the first measure (number 1) - or until they NEED to be able to play chord inversions and the octave scale, in which case I'll give them the Basic Chords & Scales sheet, with lettered notes. I always begin assigning the 12 major scales and chords with the "Key of C" sheet. ![]() But she did it by hand! There were no copy machines back then. My piano teacher wrote out all 12 major scales, chord progressions, cadences, chord inversions and arpeggios for me when I was a little girl. There seemed something a bit magical and comforting in this routine: playing a pattern in one key, and then repeating it in another key, necessarily adjusting hand position and utilizing different fingering choices, getting the same overall sound, but with a sudden freshness. As a child, I had no idea how much time the exercises must have taken for her to write - for all of those keys, too! - but even then, I appreciated and enjoyed playing these patterns. ![]()
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