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ow to Teach Piano Chording to KidsY 30, 2013 : BY ANDREA

en choosing how to teach piano chording to kids  there is one important th

member: keep it simple! Even your young beginners can start learning about chord

piano as soon as they can recognize and play a 5th.

en teaching chording to young piano students, you can skip the  long-winded

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planations and the chord charts, and you can just delve right into the music, knowin

theory and the understanding of major and minor and augmented and suspende

enths etc. etc. will follow. Your first priority is to excite them with the poten

e piano.

re’s a quick-start guide for how to teach piano chording to young students

ur “keep it simple” mandate in mind, follow these 4 steps and your piano kids will so

ording like pros!

PIANO CHORDING “QUICK-START GUIDE”…

Begin with 5ths – Teach beginning chording using 5ths instead of 3-note chords

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ans your piano students don’t need to worry about major vs. minor and the accid

t go along with this. Without the 3rd in the chord they’re free to practice moving a

the keys without having to think too much. Nothing sours a first chording experien

nsistently forgetting the F# in a D chord. I introduce chording as a “both hands” a

get into playing a melody line with the RH later on, but first I like to have both

olved in the chording process.

Choose your Keys Wisely   – Avoid introducing chording that requires tricky

sitions (like a chord with Bb as the root). Look for music that contains chords w

te key is the root for all of them (avoid Bm if you can as that’s tricky too!). My

no students right now are learning to chord along with P!nk’s “Try” which require

, F, C and G for the entire song. It’s completely approachable with nothing to trip

Leave the sta! out of it – When teaching your piano students how to chord yo

king them to move out of any sense of position on the piano. Because method book

en rely on position-based playing, this can be unnerving to some kids who are no

moving around… so you’ll want to keep the process as simplified as possible. You

ed to write the chords on a staff… use chord symbols on their page instead. Chorden done from chord symbols or by ear in the “real world” anyway.

Sca!old your teaching – Much of how to teach piano chording to students sho

ne in stages. Students should first learn to move through a 4-chord progression

d 5ths in both hands played at the same time. I use two quarter notes per chord to

m off with some sense of rhythmic pulse to their playing. Once they can easily do

u can then change it up by using broken 5ths (so LH plays fingers 5-1 and RH pla

each chord). You can get away with playing most of today’s pop music in this m

d not sound half-bad!

ce you’ve created this framework you can then add “extras” to your students’ cho

ities. These include adding the RH 3rd (for my young students I keep a 5th in the

te a while as it sounds better with pop music anyway until they can comfortably rea

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ave), changing the rhythm, playing the LH broken and the RH solid etc. etc. The

limit – and that’s the great thing about chording!

ally, the most important thing to remember is to give your piano student

tivation behind learning to chord. Playing chord symbols off the page is oka

ting these into the context of a well-known song is really motivating. You can

ch them to chord along as they sing the melody, or you can teach them to play th

nd melody line while chording the left hand.

oducing young piano students to chording eases the discomfort they may feel

ying “out of position”; it gives them freedom on the keyboard in more ways than

arning how to chord gives piano kids an applicable skill with life-long potential, it

door to improvisation and composing, and it creates confidence in accompanyinmming”. Plus… it’s just really fun!

nt to give your students even MORE opportunities to find freedom on the keys? Tea

ur students to compose their own music is the next step after learning to chord…

ke it actually sound like music they need to learn composing strategies. So, gra

ved-about resource here and get started! 

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Responses to How to Teach Piano Chording to Kids

Where do you find PInk songs that are easy enough for them to play? Great reminder about chord!

the question is about the other curious fact!

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Sarah says May 31, 2013 at

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Hi Sarah – I find all of my chording songs on ultimate-guitar.com… guitar players get all the fre

stuff This provides me with the lyrics and the chord symbols (and it’s also transposable

before you print so this helps with choosing a good key). For my kids who are learning to cho

and sing this is all they need. If I’m wanting to turn it into a lead sheet then I just write out the

RH melody line in my music notation program and use the same chord symbols. Most pop

songs are easy enough for kids as they’re usually based on just 4 repeating chords.

REPLY

I wish you would tell me other “well known songs” students may know that have fairly simple chord

not know them. Sometimes students will want to play a song they know but when we go to get she

music it is too complicated. I will use your suggestions. Thank you.

REPLY

 You could try some of these:

http://www.makingmusicfun.net/htm/mmf_guitar_sheet_music_index.htm

REPLY

Hi Marilyn…..I too would like some song ideas, but Christmas music is my favorite time to “add cho

 The music is so easy. I also use Christmas music to introduce “playing by ear”. That is where I ask a

of students to figure out as much of a Christmas tune “by ear” as they can……..and it’s not always

Bells! This year I had a first year (age 6) student come in with It Came Upon a Midnight Clear! WOW

we finish melody together and then add chords (we learn by ear only, I don’t use the staff)…..then th

perform “their” Carol at the Recital. Love the idea of only using 5ths……I use root only or the whole

 Thanks!

REPLY

Interesting… I like the idea of starting with fifths!

REPLY

 Andrea says May 31, 2013 at 2:13 p

Marilyn Brennan says May 31, 2013 at

Corrie Anne says May 31, 2013 at 7:54 a

Heather says May 31, 2013 at

Corrie Anne says May 31, 2013 at

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Me Too!

REPLY

I do “chording” with all of my students as early as age 6 and no one ever complains! They love it, es

in an ear training setting. I do have one question, Andrea or Trevor: do you encourage the younger

students to do chords in cadences for each song, or simply root position chords? Every now and th

have a student who can’t think of the F chord in 2nd inversion when chording and only wants to pla

position F. Thanks!

REPLY

Hi Maryn – when first introducing chording I don’t touch on inversions at all. We use only root

position. I try to keep it as simple and approachable as possible for young piano students. All

the “fancies” can be added on once they’re comfortable with the first stage of learning to

chord.

REPLY

Could you suggest other current popular songs with simple chording? I am overwhelmed with all th

there in terms of popular music and don’t know where to start. (I also can’t figure out what artists a

what age.)

REPLY

Hi Alice,

Happy to share! Right now the popular ones for kids doing chording and that have easy chord

to teach are:

Ho Hey! by the Lumineers

 Try by P!ink 

Cameron Weckerley  says June 6, 2013 at 12:29 p

Maryn says May 31, 2013 at

 Andrea says May 31, 2013 at 2:15 p

 Alice says June 3, 2013 at

 Andrea says June 3, 2013 at 7:11 p

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I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift (transposed down to C+)

Baby Baby by Justin Bieber

Stay by Rhianna (transposed down to C+)

Firework by Katy Perry

 Thousand Years by Christina Perri (has D+ chords so a bit harder)

Hey Soul Sister by Train

Wavin Flag by Knaan

 That should get you started When you are on ultimate-guitar.com you can search by song

title. Choose the version that has the most ratings and that says “chords” beside (stay away

from TAB!)

REPLY

I know this is a question from a year ago, but just in case anyone else is wondering

about this, I just ask my students what they like. I have them give me a list, I look upthe chords to see if it will work for their level (usually on Ultimate Guitar!), and listen

to it on Youtube if I’ve never heard the song. My kids love it! I’m glad you mentioned

doing it with younger kids because I’m going to have to try that! A great website

with songs for young kids is: http://www.songdrops.com/ . I typically play these

for my own babes, and they are all super easy chords! (I’m talking some songs only

have 2 chords- C and G!)

REPLY

What are the top five songs from the ultimate-guitar site that you use in teaching chording?

REPLY

Hi Alice,

I just pasted a list of the latest most popular chording songs under your first comment if you

want to check back.

REPLY

Miranda says May 30, 2014 at 4:35 pm

 Alice says June 3, 2013 at

 Andrea says June 3, 2013 at 7:12 p

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Hi Everyone!

I love to teach chording to all my students, especially because you can teach the same song to stud

all different levels and make it is a simple or as elaborate as you like! I have

http://www.billboard.com/charts/pop-songs bookmarked in my web browser and I check it to

what are the most current pop songs. I try and listen to pop or rock/alternative radio in the car….bu

love my classical station best The billboard list saves me when I ask my students what their favo

tune is at the moment and they draw a blank.

REPLY

Great tip Christine – yes, Billboard Top 40 is great resource. I also keep my eye on the top

downloads on iTunes too to be really current on what my kids are listening to.

REPLY

“The Rose”

REPLY

I love teaching the chord method…sort of doing it my way. I go through piano books and find songs

will accommodate chords. Sometime they jump out at me. Using the Adult method books helps too

learned to play by a chord method about 60 years ago. My piano teacher wrote her on method and

published. Wish I had access to it. She probably passed away many years ago. Her name was Mrs

Howard Miller and she lived and taught in New Philadelphia, OH.

REPLY

Great info. In the scaffolding section, what do you mean 5-1 in left and 1-5 in right? Are you talking

fingering on root note or inversion (in C playing GC with left and CG in right?). Thank you!

REPLY

Christine says June 3, 2013 at

 Andrea says June 3, 2013 at 7:13 p

Cameron Weckerley  says June 6, 2013 at 1

Betty Dean says November 3, 2013 at 1

 Anita says March 30, 2015 at

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How To Rescue The Unmotivated Teenage Piano Student | Teach Piano Toda

October 10, 2013 at 10:31 pm

The World of Starving Artists: Teach Your Piano Students These 3 Skills | Teach Piano Toda

s:

19, 2014 at 11:42 am

ame

My favorite “Today” songs to chord to play ALONG with the youtube tracks are as follow.

1) Best Day of My Life Only D & G Chord for the whole song…8 Beats for each and the same patte

throughout the whole song. You can teach the kids how to play the Guitar Solo. It is in the same ke

original.

2) Radioactive Bm, D, A, E. Two beats each… for the whole song.

3) Any 12 Bar Blues Songs! I have found great 12 bar blues in every key backing tracks on youtube

the students can play along with.

REPLY

 Thanks you for all your neat ideas and suggestions!

REPLY

ckbacks

[…] The Composer – If you have a teen who is prolific in their creativity, this is a great way to both h

their interests, but also provide repertoire for them… their own! Start out simple, choose 4-chord

progressions, teach them how to create a right […]

[…] don’t know that one.” Haven’t we been playing this instrument for decades? Teaching your p

students to improvise and to play by ear is a skill that will enhance their long-term enjoyment of the

and will make them a truly […]

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