Category Archives: Theory

Building Chords with Bricks

I’ve been trying to think of an interesting and portable resource to help with uteaching chords and inversions. I never got the hang of these, never ever, until I started learning to harmonise Bach Chorales as part of my teaching … Continue reading

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23/60 Teaching by Finger Number/Note Letter

Please don’t. I think it is is such a BAD idea… What has provoked this post, is taking on a number of young piano students recently. They turned up with numbers written over EVERY SINGLE NOTE in their pieces. Ugh. … Continue reading

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Sunday 19th April – GRADE 1 THEORY SCALES WORKSHEET

  I’m in a slight flap about my Grade 1 theory group… I missed several lessons last term through illness, and it was a very short term anyway. So now we are all a bit behind with covering the syllabus … Continue reading

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Issue 149: Grade 1 Theory – teaching semitones and tones

I’m finding this really tricky to teach. I have a group of about ten children, ranging in age from 7 years to 11 years old who come to a half-hour Grade 1 Theory club every week. They have a wide range of … Continue reading

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Issue 144: Once a man fell in a well

This is one of the first songs I learned to teach when I started teaching the Wider Opportunities Programme. Many of my colleagues will now scroll straight onto the next post as they have been teaching this to a dozen … Continue reading

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Issue 136: Reading Music

So, having just mentioned that from now on primary school children are expected to learn staff notation, here’s a really, really quick introduction to reading pitch notation… Have a look at this little piece, which I “composed”, if I can dignify … Continue reading

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Issue 132: Music Writing

I came across this article recently: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html?referrer= I was fascinated to read how important handwriting appears to be for children as part of process of learning to read. I’ve always felt that writing music notation is a really helpful way of … Continue reading

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Issue 130: Theory – Grouping of Notes

I have been teaching Grade 2 Music Theory for the first time ever this year. There are just half-a-dozen children, aged ten and eleven, taking the exam next month, and they are all at least Grade 2 or 3 on … Continue reading

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