There is a common trope in contemporary piano teaching where one is constantly exhorted to 'teach chords', sometimes by other teachers and sometimes by students. Many prospective students ask specifically to 'learn chords'. But what does this mean? For the majority, it appears to mean beginning piano lessons by learning to play a number of chords in sequence and then superimposing a melody on top. For many modern piano methods, it means no more than introducing chord playing for the left-hand far earlier than was traditionally taught, and, in my opinion, before the student is ready.
Neither of these approaches to teaching the piano is effective. Yes, starting with chords and simple (pop) songs might produce quick results, but it lacks any pedagogy beyond the first few weeks. That method will not produce capable pianists. The piano methods introducing chords early are doing little more than playing to the crowd. There is no sound pedagogical reason behind it; in many cases the beginner's hands have not yet fully adapted to piano playing and are not ready to play and hold two or three notes in one hand with the correct technique.
This article will address the right way to teach chords on the piano, since chords are important nevertheless, though only if we teach them at the right time and in the right way. How ought we, then, to teach piano chords? Simply put: as a part of scales, arpeggios, and music theory. After the elementary level of piano playing has been mastered, what the music student needs to understand next is why certain notes or chords follow from other, or, why the composer used a certain sequence of notes and not another. Without this understand, a young student will often hesitate when the music they are playing 'sounds wrong' to them. Furthermore, understanding chord progressions (as this part of theory is most properly called) will make their playing better and their interpretations more profound.
So, now that we have established our reasons for teaching in this way, we can look at the modus operandi, or the order in which to proceed.
How to begin teaching piano chords
It is ever tempting to neglect traditional pedagogical wisdom and jump in with some chord progressions, say, I-V-vi-iii-IV-I-IV-V, which is taken from Pachelbel's Canon in D and frequently used as the basis for pop songs. Again, this will produce quick results in the short term; however, it provides no grounding, and so the student is left dependent on the specific progressions they have been taught but can do nothing with unexpected sequences of chords in real music.
Better is to begin by relating simple triads to scales. If we begin with the scale of C major, for instance, this can be represented as a series of seven triads, each with a corresponding Roman numeral:
Each degree of the C major scale, that is, the number of the note in the scale from I-VII, can form a simple triad, or three note chord. We can then ask the student, first, to play the scale of C major normally, and second, as written above. They can then be encouraged to play the triads out of order and name the degree of the scale on which they are based. This will begin to inculcate the fundamental relationships between scales and piano chords undergirding the whole of music theory.
We should move on to cadences and chord inversions only after this fundamental idea has been mastered. Inversions, or the concept that we can begin a triad on any note, can then be taught quite easily, along with seventh chords.
We can show the piano student how each inversion of a triadic chord begins on the next third above the root with the other notes in the triad following in their proper order. Thus, the notes of root position I in C major are C-E-G, the first inversion E-G-C, and the second inversion (not shown in the image above) G-C-E. And so we can see that the chord inversions work like a revolving carousel. Each time, the lowest note goes up a third and the next note from the triad appears at the top. And, of course, it goes without saying that we must also teach the correct notation for the chords and their inversions.
Next, we can look at cadences. The most obvious cadence to begin with, because it is by far the most common way to conclude a phrase or a piece of music, is the perfect cadence. These occur when we have the fifth (V) degree of the scale moving to the first degree (I); Thus, they are commonly represented as V-I.
In the image above, we can see two examples of a perfect cadence. The first example concerns only the triadic chords formed from the fifth and first degrees of C major in root position respectively. The second is slightly more sophisticated in that it adds a seventh to V. Such an example is the perfect opportunity to discuss with the student what a seventh is and how it affects the harmony. In this case, the V7 in C major is formed by adding a minor third (F) above D. By having the harmony slide from G (the root of V) to E, we create a momentary suspense with a satisfactory resolution onto chord I.
Moving to more complex chord progressions
From this essential starting point, we can gradually build up the complexity of the chords and chord progressions we expect the student to recognize both in abstract exercises and real compositions.
The first way, naturally, would be to introduce the same concepts in other keys/scales, thus broadening their understanding of the fundamental concepts. The relative minor of C major is A minor, so that would be a good place to start. From there, the same ideas can be practised in other keys.
Then, and only after the foundation illustrated above has been firmly established, we can look at standard progressions found in musical scores and different genres of music, including pop music. Such examples as Pachelbel's canon would be illustrative at this point, and also examining the reasons for the chord sequences found in all repertoire the student studies. Other types of cadence can be examined (i.e., plagal, imperfect, interrupted), too, as well as the various forms of the perfect cadence (like the IIb-V7-1 favoured in many Chorales).
Conclusion
The key thing to remember is that what we want to do is build a scaffold on which to frame all more complex knowledge. Too many teachers, and piano method books, today are eager to jump ahead before a firm foundation has been established that will allow any student to thrive as a musician. For it is the task of the teacher to produce musicians, not merely mechanists who can play a few tunes based on simple chord progressions.
We can think of it like mathematics. If we teach advanced concepts like calculus before the basics of arithmetic, algebra and geometry have been fully mastered, the most we can do is offer a series of plug-and-play equations which the students can use like automata. They will never be true mathematicians, however. It is the same with music theory. Lay the foundations, build the scaffold, then teach specific chord progressions.
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