chord challenges - vmt-library.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com2019/vmt_chord... · corgh colorl es v...

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Vibrant Music Teaching

Chord ChallengesNOTE TO TEACHERS

These 5 levels of chord challenges are a systematised way to work on chords with piano students. They will give a clear structure for teaching all the major, minor and dominant seventh chords and inversions. The 5 challenge levels provide a sense of accomplishment and landmarks along the way to guide progress.

• Chord Apprentice: Major chords in root position

• Chord Scholar: Minor chords in root position

• Chord Ninja: Dominant seventh chords

• Chord Superstar: Major and minor chords in first inversion and second inversion

• Chord Master: All chords in random order

You can download reward stickers for each level here and backing tracks and an iReal Pro playlist for the challenges here.

This booklet will walk you and your students through each level and what's required, with handy visual references along the way. Feel free to adapt this to the way you teach chords and have fun with it!

https://vibrantmusicteaching.com/challenge-posters-stickers/

https://vibrantmusicteaching.com/piano-chord-challenges/

https://vibrantmusicteaching.com/piano-chord-challenges/



CHORD APPRENTICE LEVELSTAGE 1: WHITE KEY MAJOR CHORDS

You can create any major chord if you know how they are constructed. Start with the root note (the one in the chord name, e.g. "C" if you're looking for a "C major chord") then step up 4 piano keys to get the middle note of the chord, then step up 3 more piano keys to find the top note of the chord.

When you're counting, remember that it doesn't matter whether the keys are black or white!

This way of figuring out the chords works, but it's a bit cumbersome and slow. We want to be able to quickly jump to the next chord while we're playing, not have to stop and figure it out first. That's why focusing on the patterns of black and white keys is a good way to get familiar with the chords.

SNOWMENThese chords are all white keys...I think you can figure out why I call them snowmen!

C Major

F Major G Major



CHOCOLATE SANDWICHESThe next three chords are in the pattern white-black-white so they look like 2 pieces of white bread with chocolate spread in the middle.

D Major

E Major A Major

ODD ONE OUTThere's only one white key chord left. No other chord uses the pattern white-black-black so I just call him the odd one out.

B Major

TIME TO PRACTICE!At this stage, you need to spend some time getting used to these major chords before you add any more.

Practice playing from C all the way up to C and back down again.

C D E F G A B C C B A G F E D C

Do this with each hand separately and then try hands together. Use a metronome, drum-beat or backing track to help you and speed it up when you get comfortable with the shapes.



STAGE 2: BLACK KEY MAJOR CHORDS

Congratulations on mastering the white key major chords! There are just 5 chords left now and they come in three different patterns of black and white keys.

BLACK AND WHITE COOKIESI won't say the name for trademark reasons, but we all know which cookies I'm talking about.

D Major

E Major A Major

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE ICECREAMThe yummiest of all major chords!

G Major

ODD ONE OUTAgain, B is the odd one out. B flat is the only chord with the pattern black-white-white.

B Major



TIME TO PRACTICE!Practice all the major chords going from C up to C and back down again.

C D D E E F G G A A B B C C B B A A G G F E E D D C

Doing them this way means you can see the patterns a little more easily on the piano as each finger will move up 1 key every time. Use a metronome, drumbeat or backing track to help you and speed it up when you get comfortable with the shapes.

STAGE 3: CIRCLE OF FIFTHS JUMPS

You probably know the chords pretty well in order by now. But to become a Chord Appren-tice you need to be able to jump to the chord without hesitation, no matter what order they come up in.

Your final challenge is to play the chords the whole way around the circle of fifths, and back again at 60bpm with 2 beats on each chord. Start slower and mark off each tempo as you complete it successfully.

Bonus tip: Look ahead to the next chord all the time, don't let your eyes stay on the one you're already playing!



CHORD SCHOLAR LEVELSTAGE 1: WHITE KEY MINOR CHORDS

You can create any minor chord if you know how they are constructed. Start with the root note (the one in the chord name, e.g. "A" if you're looking for a "A major chord") then step up 3 piano keys to get the middle note of the chord, then step up 4 more piano keys to find the top note of the chord.

When you're counting, remember that it doesn't matter whether the keys are black or white!

If you have passed the Chord Apprentice level and know the major chords well, it will usu-ally be quickly to simply find the major chord and drop the middle note down 1 key. You may be able to do this quickly in your head but if you would prefer to memorise the shapes we can approach them in the same way as the major chords.

SNOWMENThere are 3 minor snowmen, just like there are 3 major snowmen.

A Minor

D Minor E Minor



CHOCOLATE SANDWICHESYou may notice that the snowmen have become chocolate sandwiches and the chocolate sandwiches have become snowmen when we switch from major to minor.

C Minor

F Minor G Minor

ODD ONE OUTB is still the odd one one! The pattern for the B minor chord is white-white-black.

B Minor

TIME TO PRACTICE!At this stage, you need to spend some time getting used to these minor chords before you add any more.

Practice playing from C all the way up to C and back down again.

C D E F G A B C C B A G F E D C

Do this with each hand separately and then try hands together. Use a metronome, drum-

beat or backing track to help you and speed it up when you get comfortable with the shapes.



STAGE 2: BLACK KEY MINOR CHORDS

Amazing! Only 5 chords left until you have a full set of 24 keys.

BLACK AND WHITE COOKIESThe famous cookies, back again! We've switched from flats to sharps here. You'll see why on the next page.

C Minor

F Minor G Minor

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE ICECREAMThis time the most delicous chord is E flat minor.

E Minor

ODD ONE OUTDid you see this one coming? Bs always seem to have to do something a bit differently.

B Minor



TIME TO PRACTICE!Practice all the minor chords going from C up to C and back down again.

C D D E E F G G A A B B C C B B A A G G F E E D D C

Doing them this way means you can see the patterns a little more easily on the piano as each finger will move up 1 key every time. Use a metronome, drumbeat or backing track to help you and speed it up when you get comfortable with the shapes.

STAGE 3: CIRCLE OF FIFTHS JUMPS

Ready to achieve the coveted Chord Scholar status?

The final stage is to play the chords the whole way around the circle of fifths, and back again at 60bpm with 2 beats on each chord. Start slower and mark off each tempo as you complete it successfully.

Bonus tip: Look ahead to the next chord all the time, don't let your eyes stay on the one you're already playing!



CHORD NINJA LEVELSTAGE 1: DOMINANT SEVENTH CHORDS

There are several different types of seventh chords but the one we're going to learn is the dominant seventh as this does an important job in music.

To build a dominant seventh chord we take a major triad and add another note, the "sev-enth". You can find this note by stepping up 3 keys from the top note of the major triad.

This 4 note chord can be a little awkward to play so we often leave out the fifth (the top note of the original major triad).

If this is still uncomfortable for your hand, you can put the seventh at the bottom of your chord instead.

Choose one of those ways of playing the seventh chords and try it out in every key.



A Dominant Seventh Chord E Dominant Seventh Chord

G Dominant Seventh Chord D Dominant Seventh Chord

B Dominant Seventh Chord F Dominant Seventh Chord

B Dominant Seventh ChordE Dominant Seventh Chord

A Dominant Seventh ChordD Dominant Seventh Chord

G Dominant Seventh ChordC Dominant Seventh Chord



STAGE 2: DOMINANT SEVENTH CHORDS TO MAJOR TRIAD

Once you have chosen a dominant seventh shape that's comfortable for you and done some practice with all the dominant seventh chords, it's time to put them into context.

The dominant seventh chord normally resolves to the tonic. Here's a pattern for practis-ing this in major keys: Chord Ninja - Major to dominant 7th

(Exercise) Nicola Cantan

Made with iReal Pro

Practise this with a backing track, metronome or drumming track until you can play through it without stopping or faltering, at a minimum of 60bpm, 2 beats on each chord.

STAGE 3: DOMINANT SEVENTH CHORDS TO MINOR TRIAD

The final challenge to pass the Chord Ninja level is to conquer the dominant seventh chord in minor keys too. Chord Ninja - Minor to dominant 7th

(Exercise) Nicola Cantan

Made with iReal Pro

Practise this with a backing track, metronome or drumming track until you can play through it without stopping or faltering, at a minimum of 60bpm, 2 beats on each chord.



CHORD SUPERSTAR LEVELSTAGE 1: MAJOR INVERSIONS

So far, all your chord practice has involved a lot of jumping around the keyboard. But, we don't have to move around this much to get from one chord to the next – if we can rear-range the notes in the chord.

Chords don't have to be spelled in their original order. Instead of C E G we can spell a C major chord as E G C or G E C.

C Major First Inversion C Major Second InversionC Major Root Position

Spend some time playing the different inversions of each chord on the piano. Play them in order and at random.

TIME TO PRACTICE!To make sure we know every one of these chord inversions really well, we'll go back to the circle of fifths pattern again. Practice doing first inversion chords when going clock-wise around the circle of fifths and then second inversions of every chord on the way back around. You can use a metronome or drumming track or the same backing track that you used for the Chord Apprentice challenge for this.

Don't stop until you get to at least 60bpm with 2 beats on each chord!



A Major First Inversion E Major First Inversion

G Major First Inversion D Major First Inversion

B Major First Inversion F Major First Inversion

B Major First InversionE Major First Inversion

A Major First InversionD Major First Inversion

G Major First InversionC Major First Inversion



A Major Second Inversion E Major Second Inversion

G Major Second Inversion D Major Second Inversion

B Major Second Inversion F Major Second Inversion

B Major Second InversionE Major Second Inversion

A Major Second InversionD Major Second Inversion

G Major Second InversionC Major Second Inversion



STAGE 2: MINOR INVERSIONS

Of course, it's not only major chords that can be reconfigured! We can spell any chord in any order we like to suit the situation. A minor can be A C E but it can also be C E A or E A C.

A Minor Root Position

A Minor First Inversion A Minor Second Inversion

Think of the notes of a chord like ingredients of a cake. If you put the blueberries in before the melted butter instead of after they might taste a little different...but the flavour is basi-cally the same.

TIME TO PRACTICE!Your final challenge to achieve Chord Superstar status is to play all the minor inversions around the circle of fifths, first inversions on the way out and second inversions on the way back. You can use a metronome or drumming track or the same backing track that you used for the Chord Apprentice challenge for this.

Don't stop until you get to at least 60bpm with 2 beats on each chord!



A Minor First Inversion E Minor First Inversion

G Minor First Inversion D Minor First Inversion

B Minor First Inversion F Minor First Inversion

B Minor First InversionE Minor First Inversion

A Minor First InversionD Minor First Inversion

G Minor First InversionC Minor First Inversion



A Minor Second Inversion E Minor Second Inversion

G Minor Second Inversion D Minor Second Inversion

B Minor Second Inversion F Minor Second Inversion

B Minor Second InversionE Minor Second Inversion

A Minor Second InversionD Minor Second Inversion

G Minor Second InversionC Minor Second Inversion



CHORD MASTER LEVELRANDOMISATION

The final stage to becoming a complete Chord Master is to be able to play any chord, in a random order and use different inversions to find your way around quickly. Get someone to call out chords for you or use these randomised chord charts.

Use chord inversions to play through without having to make any big leaps across the keys. Keep practising until you can play at 160bpm with 4 beats on each chord, without stopping or faltering.

RANDOMISATION 1Chord Master - Randomisation 3

(Exercise)

Made with iReal Pro


(Exercise)

Made with iReal Pro




(Exercise)

Made with iReal Pro

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