Let's Memorize Music!

As your children are preparing for their Let's Play Music Recital, or any performance, they'll need to memorize some music. It may seem overwhelming to memorize a piece of music, but this challenge is well worth the effort!

Benefits of Memorization

We don't spend tons of time working on memorizing music in our classes, but this is one element of musicianship that we want you to get a taste of! Why is memorizing beneficial?

Memorizing trains memory. Some people will tell you not to waste time memorizing because you'll fill up your brain and run out of room. Nope! The opposite is true- the more you work on memorization, the better and more efficient you get at it. 

Learning more helps you learn more. Memorizing music improves your skill at memorizing other types of information, too. Memorizing can help improve students' ability to learn.

Actually, one factor that makes learning a challenge for some kids is having a poor 'working memory' or short-term memory. You must be able to remember what you're working on long enough to get to the end of the math problem, the challenging sentence, or the phrase of music. Practicing CAN improve your working memory. Music can provide a brilliant exercise to improve your mind.

Memorizing is a work out. All of your awesome brain functions work hard when you learn something challenging or memorize it. Pushing yourself to maintain focus on these challenges trains your brain to work through struggles and stay focused. It can be exhausting because it's a workout! Learn how to handle tough mental work by giving yourself a few minutes of tough workout every day.  Students who have these skills and resilience are great thinkers!

Rote learning improves overall thinking. Memorization benefits the hippocampal foundation, a structure in the brain involved in memory. Repeated activation of the structure leads to more neuronal plasticity. So, again, you're making yourself a quick-thinker and better problem solver.

'Knowing' improves creativity. When you 'just know' facts, equations, bits of music, etc. your brain is free to use processing energy on... finding creative solutions.  Memorizing lots of music in a variety of styles makes you a better composer; as you are putting together your own new piece, you have loads of samples you can draw up from memory to emulate and alter. 

7 Tips for Memorization

Teachers Joy Morin and Laura Evans shared their favorite strategies for memorizing.  Gently encourage your child and share these ideas.

Memorize in small sections, even two to four measures at a time. When you have mastered one small section, then go on to the next small section. Then go back and put the two sections together. In the same way you gradually mastered a new piece, you can memorize it. Don't expect or try to get it all at once! Celebrate when you can add a few measures to your memory.

Try to play without the music in front of you - see how far you get! Place your music on the floor or turn the page around so you don't have the temptation to look at those notes. Then go back and work on the part where you have trouble remembering, and try again.

Practice the music away from the piano. Sit at the table, on the couch or in the car and practice your song without the music or the piano. If you can "play" it (sing the tune, tap you fingers) without the instrument or music, then it is a good indication that you have the piece memorized well!

Watch your hands as you play. Simply closing your eyes may not always produce the best memorization. By watching your hands you can get a better understanding of the music and have an anchor of familiarity when performing in a new environment.

Memorize hands alone, especially the often neglected left hand. Make sure that you know the bass line so it will flow naturally when memorizing both hands together.

Sing the note letter names out loud, in rhythm, in each hand without playing them. Singing note names is tricky. If you are able to sing them then it's proof that your brain knows those details of the music so well that it will remember them despite any nerves, mix-ups or stumbles. You will be able to play through at the performance and if you make a small mistake, it should help you to continue without having to start over completely at the beginning of the piece.

Analyze the music by looking at its form (is it ABA format?), it's harmonic rhythm (red, red, yellow, red), etc. This will create a mental road map to follow as you memorize the piece.

Spaced Repetition & Memory

When we learn a new bit of information on Day 0, we all start to forget the information right away. It's a bummer, but that's just how the brain works. Our brains need cues to get the message, "hey, this stuff is worth remembering." 

So even though you JUST memorized some music, you start forgetting right away. 

The forgetting curve looks like an exponential decay curve. 

Each time we review what we know (and start to forget again right away), the decay curve is a little bit flatter.  Each time we can allow longer periods between review, and we can remember just a little bit longer before we start to forget. 

The trick for optimizing learning is to plan repetition of activities and information so that the reviews coincide with the intervals of time when students are starting to forget their facts.  With organized intervals of repetition, we can study smarter, not longer.

That's why we sing a new Let's Play Music song or game in every class, several times, when it is first presented. Then it comes back (less frequently) for us to review and sing.

Remember Every Song Forever

If you want to study smart, try creating your own spaced repetition learning: review pieces of information that you are retaining  less often than pieces that you are forgetting. 

Here's quick piano example: Make a list of all the songs you have memorized, ever. Attempt to play through the songs. Based on how accurately you can remember the song, decide if you will review it again tomorrow, next week, next month, in 4 months, or next year.

As part of your routine, each time you play piano, include some work on a new piece you are trying to memorize and some time for a play-through of a piece that you already know. 

If your list is short and you're having fun, you might play more songs than are on your list (playing memorized songs is really fun.) Or you might have a special  day each week when you use ALL of your practice time to play from memory!

The importance of a printed list is to remind you of your songs. If you wait too long, you'll eventually forget what you worked hard to memorize in the first place. 

Remember, the goal is to practice again just as you are about to forget, and that happens at increasing intervals each time.  By making it part of your routine to play through one old favorite (it's fun-you won't mind), you'll retain every song you've ever memorized, forever! 

One Last Benefit

I know your student is very young right now, but you'll be glad to know that memorization practices can stave off cognitive decline in aging populations.  Continue practicing songs you've memorized, continue learning new ones, and you'll stay sharp in your later years.  Music lessons really are a gift that stays with you your whole life long!


Have fun preparing for your recital, and plan to keep those songs in your memory forever.

-Gina Weibel,M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Discover The Pentatonic Scale

You probably have the basic gist of what a scale is.  We sing some notes and they go up, up, up. 

But when I start talking about pentatonic and diatonic and chromatic scales in class, people start wondering, "what the heck are those and why do we care?"

In this post, everyone (especially Sound Beginnings parents) can get excited about the pentatonic scale and improve their melody skills.  

A Scale With Every Note

You may hear mention of the chromatic scale.  (Chromatic means colorful.) This is a good one to start with because it means we play 12 semitone intervals, so 13 notes.  Play every single piano key, black and white, and that's the chromatic scale.  Voila!

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

On a piano, the 12 steps are evenly spaced, meaning the wavelength of the note changes by a consistent amount between each step.  You've played an octave when you play a note that has a wavelength twice the length from the note you began on, a 2:1 ratio. 

The chromatic scale is the fundamental set of notes from which scales can be built. It's not really musical, because it doesn't have a tonic, a home note.  

We love finding "Do is Home" in Let's Play Music, and being able to identify the home, or key note, in music we listen to. Music naturally pulls back to Do, so let's look at some scales that have a tonic note and work for writing melodies.

Scales Around the World

Thousands of years ago, peoples in different parts of the world discovered frequency ratios and pitch relationships.  By selecting 5-8 tones with relationships they liked, scales were created and used to make melodies.  Different cultures settled on varying scales, giving the music characteristic sounds.  

Note: Any of the following scales could be played in any key by creating the same pattern of skipping tones (with whole steps and half steps) to create the scale. 

The Diatonic Scale is our beloved Major Scale Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do! Read more about it here. Western music since the Middle Ages on has been based on this scale. We spend most of our time in class learning about this scale. The steps go: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Remember that trick and you can build a major scale on any note.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

Here are the notes/intervals that make an Indian whole-tone scale, just one of the many scales that could be used in Indian music. Notice how evenly spaced the tones are...all whole steps, all the time. Here is some piano music using a whole tone scale. Sounds dreamy!

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

And a Hungarian Gypsy scale. Listen to it here...sounds like you would expect.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

And an Arabic scale.... well, sort of. Arabic tone scales actually define wavelength intervals smaller than what we use (or have names for or piano keys for). When you're tuning your guitar and your note is a little too flat to be C but a little too sharp to be B, you're playing one of those Arabic notes that we usually pass over. Want to see how a guitar can make the microtones by adding extra frets? Pretty cool, and if you like getting sciencey with microtones, check out some computerized 53-microtone music.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

The Blues Scale comes in super handy during our 3rd year of Let's Play Music when we get to play some piano blues! Write a new melody for your blues using these notes. Get some help learning Blues Scales here.

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

Pentatonic Scale Everywhere

The pentatonic scale, created by the  mathematician, Pythagoras, is rather special.   He started with a home/tonic note and added a perfect 5th. The 5th is an interval between two notes whose wavelength have a ratio 3:2. 

Take the notes you have, repeat the process again and get 2 more notes, or 5 all together: the pentatonic scale. These notes have nice clean ratio-relationships, so they harmonize nicely together.

By the way, repeat the process to get 2 more notes and create the diatonic scale. If you want to get a little nerdy, let Donald Duck take you on a tour of Pythagorean society in this classic educational cartoon about math.

The result is a five-note scale with the intervals most commonly used for music worldwide. You can find this scale in every musical culture.  There are loads of country, folk, jazz, and rock songs that contain just these 5 notes in the melody, but they are especially prevalent in children's songs.  

C  C# D  D# E  F  F# G  G# A  A# B  C

Do       Re      Mi         Sol     La          Do

Why so popular for children??  Because hearing and singing this small set of easily defined musical intervals is age-appropriate and prerequisite for more advanced melodies.  Pentatonic hearing and singing is foundational for children.  You'll notice in class we start by hearing, echoing, and singing the minor 3rd (sol-mi). 

Once children are hearing and reproducing it, Echo Ed sings patterns that contain la.  Then we add in do  and re as ear-training progresses to more complex tunes.  (Very last we add echoes with fa and ti...notes from the major scale)

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates how his audience has already internalized the pentatonic scale. Wherever he goes in the world, the audience 'gets' the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is part of every musical culture!

  
Sing the Pentatonic

Here's a collection of songs built on the pentatonic scale. Many more of your favorite children's tunes fit into this category, too. 

Notice that the pentatonic scale avoids half step intervals. It seems easier to train your vocal chords to jump to the intervals without having to consider the half steps that occur in the major scale.

Pentatonic songs are great to teach to your child or any beginning singer. You'll recognize many from our Sound Beginnings classes (click links to hear these songs). There are thousands of pentatonic songs you would recognize, but here are a few:

• Amazing Grace 
• Camptown Races
• The Crawdad Song
• Mister Rabbit
• Old Dan Tucker
• Ten in the Bed
• Mary Wore Her Red Dress
• Alabama Gal
• Bow Wow Wow
• Old MacDonald Had a Farm (and other songs)
• Bought Me A Cat
• Old Brass Wagon
• Rocky Mountain
• Button You Must Wander

Have fun singing with the pentatonic scale, and if you're interested, check out our blog series on Singing in Tune.

- Gina Weibel, M.S.

Let's Play Music teacher

Truman Walker: A Let's Play Music Foundation for Success

Every year, more and more young musicians graduate from Let's Play Music and go on to further musical pursuits. We love checking in to see what these young people are up to and today we caught up with superstar Truman Walker, winner in the 2012 LPM Composition Contest.

Meet Truman Walker
Truman took three years of Let's Play Music lessons with teacher Tina Gosney in Eagle, Idaho. After graduation, he continued to study piano lessons with local teachers Launette Shaw and then Suzy Clive. Truman says, "Suzy is a very accomplished pianist and an amazing teacher who has taught me a lot. Let's Play Music helped me with the basics so that I could learn really quickly when I started with Suzy and started learning more classical music."
 
Truman learned that when working on specific piano pieces, attending master classes with different experts like Brandon Stewart, Andrew von Oeyen, Dr. Renato Fabbro, and Jason Lyle Black  really helped him master his work and prepare for competitions.

Truman's consistent work and training has led him to success in several fun and challenging venues, including:

2013 Apple Blossom Festival Music Competition, Payette, Idaho - Junior Division, First Place. Original composition, Good King vs. Evil King.

Treasure Valley Music Teachers Association Sonatina Competition
      - 2014 - Level 4 - First Place
      - 2015 - Level 7 - First Place
      - 2016 - Level 10 - First Place
        
2016 Meridian Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, Junior Division (10-14 yrs), Second Place, performing Concerto No. 8 in C Major by W.A. Mozart


2016 Spokane Piano Competition
-Baroque/Classical Division - First Place, Performing Sonata in E Major by Domenico Scarlatti
-Modern/Impressionist Division - First Place, Performing Bagatelle No. 10, Op No. 5 by Alexander Tcherepnin
   

Question and Answer with Truman

Gina: How do you imagine things might have turned out differently for you if you did not do LPM, if you had just gone straight to your piano lessons?

Truman: Music wouldn't be as fun. I wouldn't have been as excited for just piano lessons. LPM helped me learn how to love music and express myself. LPM helped me do things I wouldn't be able to do, like compose songs. Now I have composed five piano pieces and performed them at different recitals and events.
 

Gina: Do you ever get discouraged or bored or tired when you are practicing? 

Truman: YES! But I get over it by thinking about why I love it and what I want to accomplish. I also think about how practicing makes my pieces turn out better, and that gives me motivation to keep trying. I practice 2.5 hours every day.  I have to think about my goals a lot so I can keep working hard.

Gina: Wow! 2.5 hours. What does that practice routine look like?

    

Truman: Ms. Clive has helped me break my practice sessions down into 7 parts. First, I review my goals for the day and list what I want to finish during that practice session. Second, I play through some of my repertoire so I keep my pieces fresh. Third, I work on technique by doing Hannon exercises or "power fingers" to strengthen my fingers, hands and arms. Fourth, I do scales to learn and memorize key signatures. Fifth, I play through LDS Hymns so I can help with the music in my church congregation. Sixth, I practice sight reading and work on musical theory workbooks. Seventh, I get to work on memorizing and playing my major piano pieces that I am preparing for performances, competitions or just for fun to challenge myself.  
 

Gina: How do you go about writing a song?  

Truman:  First I think of one main idea and the key signature I want to use. Then I think of things that sound original and I piece them together and smooth them out to make a song. I have written pieces about family trips we've taken and other things. I have also written a song for my older sister who accidentally hit a wrong chord in her piano practice one day. She liked the chord and asked me to write a song using that chord as the main idea. That was fun.

 

Now I have written 5 pieces. After the LPM composition, I continued to build on that song and it helped me win $50 at the Apple Blossom Festival. Here's a piece I composed called Living Water.
 

Gina:Can you tell me about one of your musical memories?

 
Truman: One Sunday night when I was 9 years-old, our family was sitting together in the piano room listening to me play. They started asking me about how I write songs and how the music comes to me. Then my older brother, David, and sisters, Anna Mae & Katelyn, started playing a game with me. They would give me an idea, like 'standing next to a waterfall' and I would play a mini-song for them that created a feeling like they were experiencing the idea they came up with. We did this for about an hour that night and it was a fun memory for our family.

Sing Your Favorite Books

One of my favorite activities in every Sound Beginnings class is story time:  I treasure reading picture books, and when I get to sing them, I love stories times more!

Why Read?

Parents and researchers are well aware of the myriad benefits of reading to young children. Reading to a child:

• increases his receptive (understood) vocabulary up to 40%
• improves his expressive (speaking, talking) skills
• prepares him to perform better in school
• improves bonding and well-being
• establishes a culture and pattern for enjoyment of reading
• promotes communication between you and the child
• instills positive attitudes toward reading and learning
• promotes a longer attention span and develops abilities for focus and critical thinking
• improves listening skills and imagination
• expands his topical knowledge
• raises his IQ by an average of 6 points

Why Sing?

It's no surprise, then, that we love incorporating story time into Sound Beginnings class.  Singing the books adds even more boost.  

• Singing emphasizes rhymes, meter, and patterns in the language. We guide the child to notice and interpret them. 
• Melody provides a powerful memory tool. It's no wonder every brand has created a jingle for their product!
• Music enhances the teaching of words, grammar, and concepts.
• Singing boosts expressive language skills.  Children practice using words and phrases in song lyrics that they have not quite yet mastered in everyday speaking.
• Singing forces the brain to use both hemispheres simultaneously. We strengthen what we are learning by activating more of the brain as we learn. 

To the Let's Play Music Students:

One more benefit of singing stories: it opens a venue to play with composition. I tell my 3rd-year-students that a composition can start from just about any inspiration, especially from a poem or rhyme.  When my recent LPM-grad daughter saw me making the videos below, she went over to our stack of books and spent an hour creating melodies of her own for each one!

So, singing stories is not too babyish for anyone, and I'm going to help you get started. Who knows!? You may decide to transcribe one of your new tunes, add some accompaniment at the piano, and make a piano piece!

Singable Stories

Here are nine songs that have been made into books. This is a great way to get started since the tune has already been written.  Children love if you sing these to them over and over while they look at the pictures and words. (click images to go to Amazon)

 

Your Favorite Books!

The library is bursting with darling books and stories; don't you just wish more of them were sing-alongs?!  Don't despair! YOU have the power to take those books and make them into songs.  Here are some tips to get you going:

• Choose stories with short, repeating verbal patterns
• Choose stories that already have meter and rhyme (Dr. Seuss books are perfect examples)
• Read the story several times to get a feel for the verbiage
• Go for it: attempt to sing a page or two of the story! Success!

I pause here because you could call it a successful story-telling day already. Sing whatever tune you make up on the spot, and your melodic voice will intrigue your child. But what if my melody was lame? And maybe my voice was off-key?! And I don't even know what notes or patterns I was singing!

Here's the great news: your preschooler thinks you're awesome already! No judging! We believe learning happens through play (read our post), when everyone is free to try new things without fear. Are you brave enough, Mom and Dad, to try, too?

If you'd like to make that story even better, do this next:

• Eventually settle on one melody for this story. Try to remember the melody, and sing the same one every time you read this book. Being memorable is one trait of a great melody.
• Be repetitive.  The words of the story repeat, and your short melody repeats.  Over and over and over. Toddlers love it.
• Simple is best! If you have bells or a piano in your home, use them to tap out a do-re-me-fa-sol, or other simple patterns. Then try to incorporate them, changing the rhythms as needed to fit your words.
• Incorporate any of these common patterns: mi-re-do, sol-sol-do, sol-la-ti-do, sol-fa-mi-re-do, and sol-mi-do.  Ask your music teacher to show you these on the bells or by singing if you haven't been to Let's Play Music class.  These are very common melodic patterns that we will be singing and reading for 3 years in Let's Play Music. They each draw us back to Do and make a great ending to a musical phrase.
• An advanced challenge is to take your favorite story, even if it doesn't have obvious meter and rhyme, and you have to make up meter and pretend that it rhymes.

Hippos Go Berserk

Okay, to show you how I do this in my family, I grabbed our very-worn copy of Hippos Go Berserk.  I sang it to the kids a few times until I could settle on a memorable tune that I decided was the one for this book. Just for you, I went back and analyzed what I was doing (this is great if you want to transcribe your melody like our 3rd year students will do.)  

I have a Do. mi-re-do pattern, but I added repeats as needed to fit with the words.  So "One Hippo all alone" is Do mi-mi re-re-do."  See? Still a mi-re-do, I just duplicated some notes. My entire song has this pattern:

Do. Mi-re-do.

Do. Sol-fa-mi.

Do. Mi-re-do.

Sol. Fa-mi-re-do.

Check it out:
video

I'm a Baby, You're a Baby
Here's another worn-out book in our house. I'm a Baby, You're a Baby. I didn't find an easy way to incorporate the animal words into the song, but luckily found that everyone likes it when I pause so they can shout out the answers.
  

The Composer in You

I hope you will try this idea of singing books a try.  You will really be improving your composition skills and improvisation.  Better yet, you'll be showing your children that we play with music.  We don't just perform music that is written out in a score and practiced in rehearsal halls, we create music with the language around us, and we find the music hidden everywhere we go! It can be so silly.

You'll start to be aware of lanaguage: What melodic patterns fit these words? What rhythms do these words naturally have?  Could I sing a tune to that phrase? You'll notice musical possibilities all around and expand your composing skills by bounds.



-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music teacher  
   

2015 Composition Contest Winners!

The student confidently steps onto the stage, and announces his original composition before taking a seat at the grand piano.  He performs beautifully for the audience.  The parents, and certainly the teacher, are surprised how quickly three short years have flown past since he began Let's Play Music, and now he's graduating from the program as a viable musician.  Audience members gasp in delight to hear the creativity, knowledge, and feeling bursting from compositions by unassuming six-, seven-, and eight-year-olds.

This is a familiar scene every Spring in Let's Play Music studios nationwide.  The program helps students read and play piano music, but the more fantastic result of three very short years is a student body who understand the music, enjoy the music, and create their own music!

Today we share the video of the winners from the 2015 National Composition Contest: students who made it clear that they will forever be creators of music.  Winners were announced earlier in June at the National Let's Play Music Symposium for teachers.  1,500 young composers completed compositions in 2015.

WATCH HERE:

 

Best Overall Composition, by Asia: Sledding.
Teacher: Trina Harding 
"My song is about me and my dad sledding fast down a long hill."
 

Best Use of Chords, by Jackson: Piano Man in China.
Teacher: Lily Hight

Best Melody, by Katie: Swallow & The Tortoise
Teacher: Shea Morley
"You will hear a swallow. She's happy because she is invited to a birthday party. Then you'll hear a tortoise, slow and sad, because he isn't invited."

Best Use of ABA Form, by Kien: Robot's Workshop
Teacher: Anna White
Video: coming soon!
 
Most Original Composition, by Oliver: Dragon & the Man
Teacher: Stacie Raddatz
You'll hear an exciting tale of a man who sneaks into a dragon's lair for a diamond.

Honorable Mention, by Aleena: Avaleena
Teaher: Debbie Huish
Aleena's composition "Avaleena" is about her and her sister Avalee. The title is both of their names together and she wrote the song for her sister Avalee. In the song you will hear happiness, fighting and sadness. Aleena loves her sister Avalee. 

Honorable Mention, by Gavin: Here Comes a Bison
Teacher: Tina Gosney
"The reason I wrote this song is because I love Bison"


Honorable Mention by McKenna: Make a Wish
Teacher: Heather Prusse
"I dedicate this song to both my sisters, because they're the best."  
Honorable Mention, by Elida: Best Friends Forever
Teacher: Natalie Pasqueralli
"My song makes me feel happy because whenever I play it, It reminds me of my best friend, Sophie."

Honorable Mention, by Quentin: Angry Creature
Teacher: Annie Miller
"If you listen carefully, you'll hear a troll, a goblin, and a zombie." 

Honorable Mention: Dog Bite Boogie
Teacher: Liz Murdock

 

Block, Broken, Marching: Love those Chords!

Quick Reminder: What's a Chord?

Photo courtesy of Facebook user Sara Young

By now you're very familiar with the Red, Blue, and Yellow triangles your Let's Play Music teacher uses in class.  Triangles have 3 corners to emphasize that a chord has at least 3 notes heard together. (Yeah, when you graduate from LPM you will learn chords with more than 3 notes.)  
 

Block Chords

So, if a chord must have at least 3 notes, one straightforward way to play it is to strike all 3 notes simultaneously.  Your ear hears all 3 sounds merged together into one sweet creation: the block chord. Block chords can sound very strong, loud, and powerful in songs. Or they can sound rich and deep.

One of my favorite things about Let's Play Music is when my 5-year-olds sing and play "Old Paint" at the very begging of 2nd year. It's their first time on the piano and they already sound loud, rich, and complex because they are playing chords AND overlaying with the melody of their voice. It sounds SO GOOD from day one.  This is very motivating and the students want to sit down and play for hours!

When reading chord maps in year one, we touched each triangle as the entire chord was played on the beat.   We generally consider all chords played on the harp as block chords (students strum all notes in one swift movement, or at least they try to!)

Block Chord Ear training: Listen to this sample of block chords playing.  The first activity is just like ones we do in class to help students distinguish when we change from one chord to a different one.  The second activity is for to practice identifying which chords are heard in a pattern.  Ear training practice helps our students recognize cadences in music they hear every day, all around them!



Reading Blocks: Since music is read from left to right, notes that are stacked on top of one another are played at the same time.  Learning to recognize the familiar shapes of block chord structures, and teaching the hand muscles to quickly play them is a great skill that all Let's Play Music students graduate with.  As we mentioned in our post on note reading, musicians look at notes and chords in chunks.  You may scrutinize one note of the chord for accuracy, then let the shape of it guide your hand to magically perform the rest of the chord!

By graduation, students will have no trouble playing block chords all over the keyboard, like these.  If you ARE a third year student, what color are these chords!? (The answer is at the end of the post!)

Broken Chords
So, a chord has three or more notes.  A delightful variation is to play the notes one at a time instead of all at once.  Broken chords can change the feeling of a song into something delicate and lilting when played piano and legato or give a sharp and spicy impression when played forte and staccato!

A fabulous word that means 'broken chord' or 'notes of a chord played in sequence' is arpeggio.  Nothing beats having your five-year-old approach a guest over at your house, and announce, "I'd like to play you some arpeggios on the piano, for your listening pleasure."

In the first year of Let's Play Music, we played songs like "On Top of Spaghetti" to practice with broken chords.  Although we did use a chord map, we tapped each corner of the triangles while listening to the accompaniment to emphasize that we are hearing each note of the chord separately (broken chords.)  

Arpeggio Ear Training: Broken chords (arpeggios) are used in Let's Play Music ear-training just as often as block chords.  It is often easier for the students to figure out which chord I am playing if they can hear the notes one at a time, hearing the individual notes and intervals between them.  If I play a block chord and the student can't identify it, I usually play broken style and they can recognize it.  In each of these tracks, can you tell which chord I play? 


Reading Broken Chords: Just like you read a book left-to-right, you play the notes from left-to-right one at a time. You'll get excellent practice with songs like "Lullaby." Because arpeggios are so common, composers often write a block chord and put the arpeggiate symbol next to it.  It just means 'spread this out' and is a handy way to save paper if you write a lot of broken chords. If you want the chord to be played top-to-bottom, add a downward arrow to the symbol.

Some delightful variations that will be very useful in composing music are fun to experiment with now (why wait!?).  After playing the 3 notes of a chord, why not repeat the first note again an octave higher (shown above)? Play the arpeggio going up and then back down! Fancy!  (You'll have to use fingers 1-2-3-5; that's tricky!)

Looking for another way to add a fourth beat? Play the broken chord and then replay the middle note. This can really spice up an accompaniment.  Red, Blue, Yellow, and Red chords in broken style:

There's no need to play a boring bug-bug-bug-bug rhythm.  Take these notes and add a calypso rhythm to make your composition even fancier! That's what what you'll see when you play "Tinga Layo".

Marching Chords
In Let's Play Music we highlight one more fun way to play chords: Marching style.  Like a mixture of block and broken, the chord is played in two beats.  First play just the lowest note of the block, then play all the others. Voila! You've got some marching chords.

You can play around with marching in your own compositions.  Mix up the rhythms or repeat the low or high to create some cool sounds.  In third year we'll also play marching by having the right hand and left hand alternate for a marching sound.  Can you play this cool composition I just made completely of red chords?

 

Have Fun with Chords

Photo courtesy of Facebook user Juliane Wolf

Now that you know the secrets of block, broken, and marching chords, you can change the way you play songs!  In Let's Play Music classes, we train complete musicians. That means students understand how songs are put together, have the power to improvise the way they play what is written on the page, and can compose their own music. 

So give it a try! Go play with chords and create something new! 



Block Chord Reading Quiz Answer:These chords shown are shown in different inversions.  They are: Red, Red, Red, Blue, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Red. Or you could say I, I, I, IV, IV, V, V, I.  You must look at the key signature to be sure that the first block chord is a I (Red)! Our 3rd year students are so smart!

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music teacher