https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-transcribe-music-before-you-start/
You hear a favorite tune on the radio and jump to your instrument, trying to pluck out the melody. When you listen to a tune and try to write out what you hear, you are transcribing music.
In this series from Musical U you will learn how to transcribe this instrumental track, step-by-step. Let’s get started! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-transcribe-music-before-you-start/
Did you know that it’s possible to practice your musical repertoire even when you don’t have your instrument in your hands?
Learn all about the skill of audiation, a.k.a. imagining music in your head, and how it can improve your musical memory, your understanding of the music itself, and even your performances.
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Today I wanted to talk about something mentioned by Sharon Mark-Teggart of The Curious Piano Teachers in our recent episode, and which also came up when talking with Gerald Klickstein, author of The Musician’s Way, and that’s the importance of forming a vivid “mental model” of music *before* you play it.
This is something we teach a lot at Musical U, though it’s actually only recently that we’ve been turning it into a full-on training module.
The word we use for it is “audiation”, which simply means to imagine hearing music in your mind. That word was coined by Edwin Gordon, known for his “Music learning theory”, which was mentioned and recommended by past guest Donna Schwartz. I’m hoping we’ll have someone from the Gordon Institute of Music Learning on the show in future, but for now I wanted to just tackling this one part of his approach.
You might also hear it called “auralising”, and although those two words, audiation and auralising may sound technical, it truly is no more complicated than imagining music in your mind.
It’s the musical equivalent of visualisation, you’re just trying to vividly imagine the thing in your mind.
We all do it, every day, any time a song pops into your head on purpose or by accident. If I ask you now to take a moment and think of your favourite song, or the theme music from your favourite TV show – I’ll stop talking, see if you can hear that music in your head.
Were you able to hear it? You just audiated!
When you first start, it will probably be a bit fuzzy and you may not remember the music very well. But with practice you’ll be able to conjure up really realistic musical renditions in your mind’s ear.
So you see, you don’t need to learn to audiate. But it does take practice to get good at it.
Why would you want to do that?
Well, audiation is a seriously powerful tool to have in your toolkit as a musician and music learner.
It’s sometimes called the “Secret Music Practice Skill” because just like visualisation can help an athlete or performer prepare for the big event, audiation can be used to practice your musical repertoire, even when you’re not at your instrument. Simply imagining the music, in as much detail as possible, helps your brain to create and reinforce the connections that later will let you perform it well.
In fact there’s a great way to make this even more effective, called “Mental Play” – we’ll talk about that on a future episode.
So audiation can help you practice, even when not at your instrument. How does that work?
Well there are a few big benefits of audiation, each of which has a positive knock-on effect to how well you’ll play when you return to your instrument.
The first is that audiation is clearly very closely related to musical memory. The more vividly you can conjure up a rendition in your mind, the better you are remembering that music. When you gave it a try a moment ago you might have found that it started off easy but then you realised you couldn’t remember the words, or you weren’t quite sure about the notes or rhythm, or you found you had no idea what instruments were there apart from the prominent melody part. So practicing audiation helps you develop your musical memory and that benefits you throughout your musical life, beyond just the obvious use case of performing without needing written music.
The second reason audiation helps you practice is that it forces the brain to really understand what’s going on in the music. It’s easy when performing from written music to think you know what’s going on, but sometimes we gloss over a lot of details, or for example there’s the singer in a choir who does a great job of singing their own part – but ask them to audiate the music and they’ll find they have literally no idea what the other singers are singing. Practicing audiating a piece of music makes you really dig into what’s going on and whether you are truly aware and understand each aspect of the music.
And the third reason is the impact it has on the musicality of your performance. This was what Gerald Klickstein and Sharon Mark-Teggart were referring to, that to play music in an expressive way, in a musical way rather than a robotic way, you must have the music inside you first. And that means being able to imagine what you want your performance to sound like *before* you play it.
Apart from that new training module I mentioned, the main place audiation has featured inside Musical U up until now is in our improvisation modules. Because it’s the interaction between playing, listening and audiating that allows you to be truly free and creative in your improvisation. You need to be able to imagine your musical creation before trying to bring it out into the world – otherwise you’re just at the mercy of whatever your fingers happen to do based on the rote learning or robotic patterns you’ve taught them.
So to a large extent audiation is the core of musicality. Yes there are lots of external skills we want to learn and develop to let us express musical ideas in the world. But before that we need our ears and our brain to have understood the music we’ve heard or the music we want to hear, and that lies in your musical imagination and the ability to audiate.
As I said earlier, one of the wonderful things about audiation is that you don’t need to be taught it. Yes, there are pointers and resources that can help accelerate your learning, hence our new training module, but fundamentally it’s something you simply learn by doing. So challenge yourself this week to try audiating something every day. Pick a song and see how thoroughly you can conjure it up in your head and how much of it you can play back in your mind. I’d suggest checking our previous episode on Active Listening to help you with that, that’s a musical awareness skill that is very closely related to audiation. At first you’ll probably just have a fuzzy idea of the main melody and maybe not the whole song, but day by day you can add instruments, add sound quality, add detail and precision, until you have a really realistic playback in your mind’s ear. Take this skill to the music you’re working on too, and I promise you’ll see a big impact. Especially if you couple it with Mental Play – but that’s a topic for another day.
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The post About Audiation appeared first on Musical U.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/first-steps-improvisation/
Ready to start improvising music?
The first step in learning how to improvise is to understand a few musical basics. Fortunately, it’s not that difficult. With a little practice you will have this down in no time. With Catz Audio https://www.musical-u.com/learn/first-steps-improvisation/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/can-musical-improvisation-singing-really-be-fun/
Musical improvisation is perhaps the most intimidating proposition for the average musician. Singing, particularly in front of other people, is probably a close second! So can it really be possible to combine these two in a way which is actually fun? https://www.musical-u.com/learn/can-musical-improvisation-singing-really-be-fun/
There are certain times and places where the right people come to together at the right time to create music that transcends both time and place. It should come as no surprise, then, that out of Mexico – a country which boasts the most florid abundance of musical diversity on the planet – would emerge one of today’s most fascinating rock bands: CNVS.
More specifically, that place is Querétaro, in the El Bajío region of the country, which (in a land of mariachi, banda, jaropo, huapango, norteño, marimba, ranchero, grupero, and literally dozens of other genres and cross-genres) has become a haven for rock, pop, punk, and jazz.
The well-trained – both through experience and schooling – musicians of CNVS have each been active in numerous other professional projects, regarding each other with mutual respect until the time came for them to join together as musical brothers-in-arms.
Beloved in their hometown, CNVS (pronounced “Canvas”) has also played the biggest rock and pop festivals in Mexico, as well as opening for Spoon in Mexico City. After their highly successful EP CNVS, they are gearing up to release their first full-length album Gran Copiloto.
We first discovered CNVS through their cover of Juan Gabriel’s 1980 hit “Yo No Nací Para Amar” (translation: I Was Not Born To Love). Later, in an extensive interview with the band, we learned that what they learned as they jammed on that tune inspired their upcoming release, Gran Copiloto.
Scheduled for release on Friday, June 15th 2018, CNVS has given Musical U a special sneak preview of the Gran Copiloto album tracks – some of which we’ll share with you here – and we were blown away.
This is a record of what has been called “rock bailable – danceable rock” that you’re going to want to listen to over and over.
Let’s first learn more about the band, the general musical characteristics of Gran Copiloto, and then dig into some deep listening.
As Isaac, the band’s lead guitarist and purveyor of “atmospheric sounds”, said in our interview, “[The phrase] “Gran Copiloto” (“Great Copilot”) refers to the best sidekick you can possibly have in an adventure – this could be the guy that plays the best music on road trips, or the love of your life who took you on a trip to Iceland.”
You gave me strength
but didn’t lose your head
and you gave me love
when there was only pain
and you helped me
as a good friend
a great co-pilot who carried me
a great co-pilot when I take off
(translated from Spanish)
That feeling of friendship and camaraderie pervades the album, which is sung in both Spanish and English. In this era of reclusive “music producers” cranking out dance hits on their laptops, Gran Copiloto truly a band effort. And these guys can play.
As we learned from the interview, the band members each lead their own separate lives. But their website title, SomosCanvas.com, means “We are Canvas”: when they come together as “we”, magic happens. CNVS does much of their writing in improvised jam sessions, which then coalesce into songs, and their music is full of the kinds of surprises that only happen in those unpremeditated moments.
Listen to this clip from the track “Blues”. The instrumental section cruises on slowly, building over ringing tick-tock guitars. Listen to the background to all the subtle shifts and variations in the atmospheric effects and intricate guitar parts that lend a bubbling energy to this quiet section. Then the small surprise comes in the middle [0:24] where a deep bass synth doubles the kick just once before disappearing (you might need your headphones to hear it):
But this is not your traditional jam band. Two band members are highly-trained, active producers and studio owners – and they bring their studio chops into the live mix.
Along with bass, drums, and guitar, each member is armed with some sort of synth, and CNVS delivers powerful EDM-inspired drops and a variety of atmospheric sounds that somehow manage to sound as nuanced, spontaneous, and organic as their “live” instruments.
Traditionally, Mexican music seems to revel in an abundance of contrasting and suddenly shifting tone colors – trumpets dance with violins in mariachi, accordions battle bajo sextos in norteño, and pop songs will often jump from acoustic guitars to electronic percussion to full orchestras at a moment’s notice.
CNVS shares this love affair with contrasting tone colors. But in an album with so many timbral surprises, there are certain unifying factors.
While we may “live in cities which are built up over water”, Gran Copiloto is built up on the firm foundation of a twangy bass, a powerful, beefy drum sound, and a trademark piercingly-beautiful-with-an-edge guitar tone that remains consistent throughout the album.
For lead guitarist Isaac, this is an instrument in and of itself. Almost every song opens or closes with a uniquely crafted ambient sound, that becomes a sort of signature for that song.
Listen to the sustained tone in the opening of “Blues”:
Similarly, “Montaña” begins with an atmospheric drone before the vocals kick in:
And ends on a pulsing note that echoes the opening:
The lyrics – whether in Spanish or English – tend to be short, punchy, and enigmatic.
As we learned in the interview, these words often emerge in improvised sessions, coming from a deep subconscious place that at times defies the logic of the “real world”. CNVS collaborates with some amazing video artists to translate this lyrical dreamscape into images:
Let’s have a closer look at this single from the album, available through a special release from Rolling Stone Magazine. The video vividly portrays a man paralyzed by too many memories, who isn’t able to move until he (literally) loses his head.
In most of the tracks on Gran Copiloto, CNVS takes a flexible approach to classic song form, interspersing short verses, choruses, and or bridges with instrumental sections that are sometimes unique and sometimes repeat. They seem to be driven by a strong internal logic of their own, beginning to end.
“Memoria” opens with its own signature atmospheric vibe, this time with a bit more harmonic structure [0:00-0:25]. Rather than a verse, the vocals burst in with a hard-rocking chorus [0:25 – 0:56] – in fact, there really is no verse in this song.
This first chorus is followed by a repeated bass note – a drone – on the characteristically twangy bass, with Isaac demonstrating his mastery of creating atmospheric effects. The instrumental texture opens up, leaving sonic space for a vocal bridge melody at [1:10]. Another instrumental section begins at [1:26] with atmospheric guitar and a prominent kick, softly accompanied by EDM-style bass bleeps (once again illustrating CNVS’ timbral playfulness).
The rock chorus returns at [1:39], followed by a short instrumental break – most definitely “rock bailable” (danceable rock) at [1:55], leading into another bridge section. Note the dull electric piano chords that appear briefly here. Gran Piloto is full of little details like this: brief timbral interjections that appear and disappear in a flash, but make perfect sense in the whole scheme of the song.
The chorus returns over brief atmospheric tone poem before rocking out. Then, the instrumental groove changes up [2:42] and drives toward the end, growing thicker [3:10] under a three-note motif of “A-F-E”, and finally taking its leave in a momentary atmospheric aftertaste.
CNVS maintains a joyful demeanor even in the midst of angst-rock lyrics, but they are also ready to rise to the occasion of romance. From “Campirana” (“Country Woman”):
| Cuando pisas fuerte
Dices siempre la verdad Buscas la felicidad De dos |
When you step strong
You always tell the truth You search for the happiness Of two |
Listen to how a sweet perfume of respect, admiration, and appreciation rises from the bouquet of major seventh chords in the instrumental break:
The members of CNVS also give their love to the span of rock history. For example, “Black Magic” brings back 1950s “shoobie-doo-bop” syllables in the midst of a T-Rex inspired romp – with more than a little “Let’s Dance”-era Bowie thrown in:
The amazing attention to detail coupled with highly developed musicianship and wrapped up in an undeniable musical chemistry between the five members of CNVS make this one of those albums you’re going to want to listen to again and again and again. With a musical richness reminiscent of a condensed Pink Floyd, there are new discoveries to be made every time we let CNVS take us on a sonic journey.
If you’ve got your headphones and dancing shoes ready, follow CNVS on Facebook and listen on Spotify and Soundcloud. Be prepared to put on your active listening ears for all the hidden treasures that await you in their masterful mix. And take a hint from these masters – add sonic surprises and subtle atmospherics to your songs to keep your listeners engaged and hungry for more.
The post Open Your Ears to Gran Copiloto with CNVS appeared first on Musical U.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-rules-studying-music-effectively/
It can be easy to get frustrated and lose sight of your goal when learning music. Instead of getting discouraged, consider following a few rules to get the most out of your practicing.
Here’s a list of 5 rules which the Musical U team has compiled to help you study music effectively: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-rules-studying-music-effectively/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-recognize-major-and-minor-keys/
Is this song major or minor? Recognising major and minor keys. It’s a basic skill and one many musicians and songwriters will take for granted, without ever stopping to think about it. Let’s take a look at how you tell the difference. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-recognize-major-and-minor-keys/
Today we’re joined by Sharon Mark-Teggart, who along with Dr. Sally Cathcart runs The Curious Piano Teachers, one of the leading organisations training up the next generation of piano teachers. And as you’ll discover in this episode they’re leveraging the latest research into what makes for effective learning and teaching to help those new teachers be more successful, enjoy their teaching more, and be continually developing and improving throughout their teaching career.
On the face of it you might think this interview is one for aspiring piano teachers only, or perhaps just music teachers. But we would strongly encourage you to take the kind of attitude Sharon talks about in this conversation: one of curiosity. She talks about how she would sometimes go along to training courses that didn’t seem directly applicable to her, for example ones designed for classroom music teachers – but by being open-minded and curious she found she would always come away with a ton of new tools and inspiration to apply in her own teaching.
In the same way we would encourage you to listen to this conversation and not just take it at face value. When we talk about teachers and students, try to consider how it all could apply not just to your own role in a student-teacher relationship, but also when studying resources online by yourself, or even when you sit and practice and you act as your own teacher. We think you’ll find that all the insights Sharon shares in this conversation can be very relevant to you in one context or another in your own musical life.
In this conversation we talk about:
We also talk a bit about the online course and teaching diploma training they have developed, and so if you’re a teacher yourself or know somebody who is, you won’t want to miss the details of that.
Listen to the episode:
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Sharon: Hey there. This is Sharon Mark-Teggart from The Curious Piano Teachers, and you’re listening to the Musicality Podcast.
Christopher: Welcome to the show, Sharon. Thank you for joining us today.
Sharon: Oh, it’s such a pleasure to be here. Thanks so much for having me, Christopher.
Christopher: You are well-known online for being an expert in teaching teachers. You specialize in training piano teachers. I think anyone would assume that you must have been one of these virtuoso kids who sat down at a keyboard and could instantly play anything at the age of three. Having talked you a little bit, I think maybe that’s not exactly the case. Can you tell us a bit about what it was like for you when you were first learning piano?
Sharon: Yes, sure. Okay. I was initially taught by my great aunt. I can remember it well. She used to call round on Saturday afternoon. I started by learning to play hymns from music notation, so it was as deeply thrown in at the deep end as you could possibly imagine.
I continued having lessons with her until I started secondary school, so I guess I started around the age of eight. Thereafter, I then had lessons from a teacher who was really quite well-considered in the area, I think possibly because she was one of the only full-time piano teachers. Again, it’s interesting, full-time, because they do it all the time it’s considered that amazing teacher.
I guess my big issue was I did nothing but prepare for exams. For the first right through until I was age 17, when I did my graduate, everything was exam-focused. I did go off. I did have the motivation to go off and learn things by myself, but I did not enjoy learning the piano at all, and only I had my mom there behind me pushing me on, I would definitely have quit.
In fact, I remember two weeks before I took my graduate exam, bringing my mom into the room and saying, “Okay, sit down. I want you to listen to this,” hoping that she would say, “It’s awful. I’m not going to make you go in there and take that.” Instead, she said, “You’ve got two weeks. Just get on with it.”
I did quite literally take it at that. I remember spending those final two weeks in the run up to my graduate practicing madly, listening to loads of recordings because I remember I was not skilled in technique and just looking back, goodness me, there were so many weak areas.
I went in. I did the exam. I got a distinction, and that was the one thing that actually spurred me to continue with learning piano. My playing and my skills as a musician were let’s say very shabby, to say the least.
Christopher: Interesting. I talk to a lot of people who have had that kind of intense exam-focused childhood experience of learning an instrument. Number one, I’m sad to say, it’s all too common, isn’t it, to feel like you haven’t actually learned to really play the instrument, you’ve just learned to tick the boxes and do your performance.
Sharon: I remember feeling so embarrassed actually when I was at somebody’s house. There was a piano, and they discovered that you had graduate with distinction, and the first thing was like, “You must be brilliant. You must be amazing.”
It was always this excuse, because at that stage, I couldn’t play from memory. I couldn’t play by ear. I couldn’t improvise, and it was always this excuse, “Well, I didn’t have the music that I knew.” Of course, to give me something to sight read would have been the other terrifying factor.
Christopher: Got you. I think when I talk to people like yourself who’ve had that experience, it’s actually really unusual to find they’ve continued with the instrument. Normally that story goes, “And so I passed my exam and I never touched it again.”
Sharon: Yes.
Christopher: For you, clearly that wasn’t the case, and you think getting a distinction encouraged you on. Was there anything else that made you think, “Okay, maybe there’s something to this”?
Sharon: The distinction was, I remember actually where I was, sitting on the stairs in my aunt’s house getting the news that I had got a distinction graduate. I didn’t think it mattered that much to me, but it did. Still to this day, I don’t feel worthy of that. I don’t think I was worthy of that distinction.
Providence, call it whatever you like, it was there, because if I hadn’t, if I’d just got a merit or if I just passed, and certainly if I failed, that would’ve been it. That would’ve been it, but I think the fact that I got that encouragement and I then explored that, and it was the people that I met subsequently that I then realized, “Okay, yes, I need to teach the piano and I need to teach it in a way that suddenly being in those years after revealed to me.”
Again, like you said, I came into it not having a great experience at all. In fact, probably what you would term as a pretty terrible experience, but I came into it so impassioned that no one was going to learn the piano like the way I had. I think that is what drove my passion to be an effective teacher myself, and then obviously leader. As I really got into it, my passion then lay in training piano teachers.
Christopher: That’s such a positive, creative outcome. Some people would have that resentment of the way they were taught and just bury their head in the sand. What was it that opened your eyes to the possibility of it being done in a better way?
Sharon: I move teachers. I’ve had a new teacher for my diploma. It was definitely the starting point, because a lot of things in those lessons changed. It was that glimpse into, “This is really quite different.” I got very involved. I started teaching. Just about the same time that I started preparing for performance diploma with that new teacher, I got involved in an actor, actor UK. I actually won my own region for 10 years in northern Ireland.
When I say I was immersed in professional development, I was for 10 plus years of my life, I was completely immersed in it. In my professional development, I’ve spent over 100000 pounds. Obviously being based in northern Ireland, I was having all the traveling expenses, as well. I have lived in London. Didn’t ever live in London, but it felt like that because I was always there for courses.
I think it was getting right there. It was meeting the right people at the right time. It was the people I met who did have the spark and the enthusiasm and where I was just like, “Wow.” I was literally blown away because I was in contact with the people who were, again, what they were doing was bringing transformation to my life as a pianist, as a musician, as a piano teacher. It was just seeing the relentless possibilities, which I hadn’t seen before.
Christopher: Take us back to that time then, because you mentioned passion there, but I’m sure it wasn’t just these people were passionate about teaching the grade four ABRSM exam syllabus to their students. What was it that they were passionate about that had been missing for you up until that point?
Sharon: What I will say at this point is that until I did the MTPP course, which is the Music Teaching and Professional Practice Course based at Reading University, post-graduate course followed by a master’s in music education research, I was teaching piano for about five years before I did that course. I remember distinctly trying so hard to teach in a way that didn’t reflect how I’d been taught, if that makes sense. I went all out. It was like, “I’m not going to teach as I’ve been taught.”
Until I went in that course, did I actually discover, “Oh, Sharon, actually you’ve been teaching exactly as you were taught.” The difference with that course was reflective practice and really digging in and understanding. Before, it was like I didn’t know what to be curious about. I didn’t have enough knowledge to be able to explore. I think it was that particular course that really exploded everything.
Up until then, I guess I was inspired by little bits and pieces, but actually just before I started the MTPP course, I was considering quitting piano teaching. Initially, going through school, I wanted to be a dietician. Can’t get any more different than that to piano teaching. If someone had said, “You’re going to teach. You’re going to be piano teaching,” it would have been, “No, absolutely not. Piano teaching is just not on my radar.” At that point, five years into teaching, I was actually considering going back into dietetics or something different because I was getting frustrated.
Christopher: Where was that frustration coming from?
Sharon: The frustration was, again, I was doing lots of courses, but there wasn’t any follow through with them. If you like, it was a one day conference here, another seminar here, the sort of thing that just fires you up for the day, for two weeks later, and then you’re back at home, you’re back in your studio and things just fall back into the routine because there isn’t that ongoing catalyst to keep you moving forward.
That was where the MTPP course at Reading University changed all of that. Again, my route is so unconventional. I didn’t have a degree at that point. I didn’t have a basic music degree. I didn’t have a basic degree of any sort of description, and I remember talking years later to the course director, and he said he really did wonder whether or not you would be a good fit on this course, because the course, it’s a master’s degree. I think I was one of the very few people to get onto it without a basic music degree.
It was because of all the other stuff they could see I was doing. They could see it was thirsty and hungry to develop my skills as a piano teacher. At that point, I was severely frustrated, and I think it was because there just wasn’t this ongoing thing to give me the solutions that I needed.
That was where then the MTPP really came into its own because there was the ongoing. You had a tutor. You could go back. The stuff that was frustrating you, you then had someone to talk to. You had a network of fellow students, and that actually made all the difference.
Christopher: Interesting. I think we’ll cycle back and talk about this a little bit later on when talking about your own community now for piano teachers, but I’m reminded so much of an episode we did recently here on the show about online courses and when you’re choosing and following through with an online course.
I was talking particularly about trying to find a course that has really great support, because it’s one thing to be able to submit an email question, but it’s completely different if you have some kind of community or some kind of an environment where a tutor, for example, is keeping an eye on you. If you start to wander off course, they can help you get back on. They can help with motivation and enthusiasm, and there’s little sticking points that can otherwise frustrate you.
I’m sure a lot of people listening can relate to where you were up until that point, taking little bits and pieces of learning from here and there and getting bursts of enthusiasm, enough to carry you through, but not really solving the overall problem.
Sharon: Yes.
Christopher: You mentioned something there that I’d love to pick up on, which was reflective practice. What does that mean?
Sharon: Okay. Reflective practice is where, I’m going to describe it as, okay, before in my teaching, stuff was going wrong. I knew stuff was going wrong. I didn’t know how to fix it because I basically didn’t have the tools in my teaching toolkit to fix the problems. The tools just weren’t there. What I was doing was I was just sweeping, brushing all of this stuff under the carpet and just going on. It felt very much to me like muddling on in the best way I knew how.
The MTPP course was the first course that really helped me understand reflective practices. It’s basically where, if I can just take it as an example, you teach a lesson, and one of the best ways to reflect on a lesson is where you video record it, obviously with the people and the parents’ written permission. Obviously, that’s very important. Whenever I’m talking about that, I always say it. You watch that lesson back and you see the things that you never realized.
Without the course, I still would’ve struggled, but of course with the support of the course, I understood how to dig into that. I knew the sorts of things to look for, and I think it was again being given that license to go, “Yes, that’s going all wrong, but it’s okay,” and being given that license to say, “It’s far from perfect, but that’s okay,” is actually the first thing that actually lets your brain just open up and go, “So let’s take a look and see what’s going on in here,” rather than all those thoughts of, “I’m a rubbish teacher, so I’m just going to close it all down,” because I’m just so scared of where this is going to go, feeling like an imposter, so you just close it down. Instead, being reflective is where you’re just going, “It’s fine. It’s fine to be wrong, not to get it right,” because that’s the first step in actually moving it all forward and improving it.
For me, reflective practice is where you’re looking at what you’re doing in practice. You are using the tools and the resources that you have, and obviously the sorts of resources that we are providing as piano teachers, to be able to go, “Okay, so what is it that I need to do to move that to the next level and to improve that?”
I think yes, we’ve got to be open, first of all. Again, the helpful way through is going, “It’s fine to be wrong. It’s fine for it to be going completely out the left,” because that gets you into a place of being really honest as a piano teacher, and then it’s having the tools where you can go and dig in and start to see improvement.
Christopher: Fascinating. It’s amazing how much of that I think applies to the individual learner, too. We’ve talked before about how you should record yourself practicing and listen back, and it’s going to be uncomfortable, but there’s so much you can draw from it. I haven’t really thought in the past about teachers doing that for the practice of their teaching, but it makes perfect sense.
Sharon: Yes. It’s exactly the same thing. It’s actually exactly the same thing for again, whether you’ve got people, again, listening to this show who are learning the piano by themselves again, go out there, record, record. Again, for teachers, students, again, what I encouraged my students to do is record themselves because you very often get them saying, “Do I really sound like that?” You can take that either as a positive or a negative.
It’s so important because it gives you the space that when you’re actually in the activity, whether you’re in the activity of playing the piano or in the activity of teaching the piano, where you just don’t get that wide open space to sit back and listen, and again, ideally video because you get to see, as well.
It’s very interesting, again, for pianists listening or watching back. You get to see, “What’s my posture like? What am I doing? Am I tensing my lips as I sit and play? Am I breathing?” You get so much feedback, and a video is an excellent place as a starting point for reflection.
Christopher: Amazing. You were someone who was at the point of considering quitting teaching piano. Fast forward, you were launching Evoco to help other people in northern Ireland become piano teachers, and you went on to co-found Curious Piano Teachers and take this mission internationally online to teach even more people.
Somewhere in there, you must have transformed from one type of piano teacher to another. Maybe you could just paint that picture for us of what the lesson looked like from the students’ perspective before and after that transformation.
Sharon: Oh, okay. That’s a great point. Okay. Yes, if I cast my mind back to my previous teaching, I think actually first of all, it was mainly about me as a teacher. Of course, as teachers, they’re learning we are never the hero of the story. It’s our students. I’m going to say that that’s the first main distinction.
Pre-reflection, I was very much, it was all about me checking is my teaching good and feeling very stuck and very stifled. Back then, it was actually, again, I was teaching very notation-based. I had students who did not enjoy practicing. I did not have a lot of practice strategies.
Oh my goodness, goodness, there were just so many things that when I fast forward to think about my teaching now, where yes, I am the teacher, but the piano lesson is not about me as the teacher. It’s not about my teaching. The focus is on the students learning, and that’s a really important distinction.
If you like, I’m not the hero. This learning journey belongs to my student. It’s their story. They are the hero. The focus is again, shifted, and again, I think this only can really come when we become more confident as a teacher, because when you lack that confidence, when you feel a bit of an imposter, you’re always trying to prove to yourself that you’re okay, my teaching’s okay, as opposed to then having the confidence in yourself as the teacher.
There are still areas. There will always, goodness me, there will always be areas as teachers where you go, “Oh yeah, I need to dig into that more.” Of course, that’s coming back to being curious. There will always be a quest of, “I need to improve on this and this and this.” The more we are curious, the more we unearth and dig up to explore and expand on. I think that is the main distinction. It’s where I’m obviously so much more confident and skilled as a teacher.
That toolbox that I referred to previously, that was really quite empty, it’s now jam-packed with things. That comes from experience, but it’s not just experience because you could be teaching for a long period of time, and if you haven’t been putting into your toolbox, the tools still aren’t going to be there. That’s an active process that teachers need to do. Yes, so looking at my teaching today, the student is the hero. It’s all about their learning. It’s where, again, I have the tools at hand to be able to develop and move them forward.
Christopher: What kind of tools are you talking about there, because I can imagine someone listening thinks, “Well, if you’re qualified as a piano teacher, you must be able to get them to doing the things that the exam requires, and if that’s what the exam requires, surely that’s what it means to be a pianist.” What extra tools would you need?
Sharon: Tons. Okay, so to give you an example, if I just dig into, for example, the art of questioning. As piano teachers, there are lots and lots of little if you imagine pockets of things that we need to have awareness and skillsets in, so questions. What sort of questions do we ask our students? You get skinny questions, fat questions, high order questions, low order questions, meta cognitive questions.
I didn’t always know about these sorts of questions. When I started to understand more about the way we enter into dialogue with our students, and the fact as well that music making is actually what should make up most of the lesson, not the teacher talking, which again very often hinder the students’ learning.
Again, just to dig into one of those examples, I remember once watching back a lesson, looking specifically and knowing to look for these things, like again, how am I interacting with the student? In this particular case study, there was something like I spent about four and a half minutes talking her through what she needed to do, trying lots of different ways. Wasn’t working, and in the end, I just demonstrate it, and that was it. 10 seconds later, she got it. You look back and you go, “Okay, so stop the talk. Stop talking, Sharon. Just demonstrate.”
Again, going back into questions, we know again from the research that we’ve done, we know from research that other people have done, not even necessarily in the music education profession, it’s about asking good questions. What is a good question? I was talking earlier on about skinny questions and fat questions. If we’re asking questions like, “Do you,” you’re going to instantly get an answer, a yes, no.
Basically, what you have done is you have shut down the opportunity to really figure out if the student understands, but if you ask a question that begins with, “How could you practice that? What might you do?” You’re instantly going into, again, open, closed. It’s either questions shut something down or open something up, and just understanding that makes such a huge impact.
Again, just really quickly, to share an example of one of my teaching students, she taught a lesson recently. She watched it. She gave it to me to watch, and it was really interesting that she, again, asked a question, got the right answer, but decided to ask another deeper question, and then realized actually, no, the student doesn’t understand this.
Again, that’s just an example of one of the tools, so again, knowing how to ask questions in a piano teaching lesson. Is it important? Yes, it’s important, because you may have a student who doesn’t get something. If you’re asking the right questions, you’ll realize, “Okay, they haven’t got that.”
That’s I think what can happen so often in lessons is where we talk to the student and we assume, and it’s something that a guy called Lee Lefever has referred to as the curse of knowledge. We’re a 10. Our students are a one and a two. We try and communicate what we know, and we so often miss and we get a seven. There’s this gap, and it’s because we have learned the stuff so long ago, we have just forgotten the possibilities for confusion.
That’s why we need to be asking those questions. We need to be interacting with our students, because otherwise, there will be stuff that they won’t understand. It’s the same way that if we have a conversation with a lawyer or an accountant, we don’t live in their world. We don’t understand. They will say things, and we can so often nod our head as if to say, “Yeah, okay, I understand,” but I don’t. Again, it’s the same with our pupils. That’s going to be a very long-winded question, but that’s just one tiny, tiny area that it can make such a transformative difference if you understand.
Christopher: I think you’ve painted a great picture there of how thoughtful you can be as a piano teacher and how easy I’m sure it is if you’ve never encountered these kinds of tools for your teaching to be oblivious to that possibility and be a very thoughtless teacher inadvertently. You used a different word then, thoughtful though in creating your company. Tell us about Curious Piano Teachers, where that came from, and why you chose that word, curious.
Sharon: Curious, I remember using the word curious on my very first Evoco banner. On the banner was, “How do you eat an elephant? Curious?” Of course, the follow through with that was, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” because as with anything that can seem challenging, again, piano teachers can look and again, when they hear about questions or when they hear about any of these little pockets that I’m talking about, they go, “Where do I start?” It seems there’s so much to learn about. The whole point is that you don’t try and get your mouth around the whole elephant. You just take it one bite at a time.
Sally, again, just to put you in the picture with Sally, Sally and I met on the MTPP course one very hot sunny day in 2003, I think it was, at Reading University. Subsequently, she was my master’s supervisor, and then we worked together as the principal teachers on the PTC, the Piano Teachers Course, that runs at the Purcell School.
She then, back in 2013 I think, she came over and did some work for me at Evoco. Again, then, she started up the Curious Piano Teacher blog, and then obviously from there, when we had a good chat, joined forces, we decided, “Okay, let’s become the Curious Piano Teachers,” because essentially, you can’t be curious about something that you don’t know about.
Of course, for example, that whole concept of questions. If you’re not aware that questions are so massively powerful, knowing all the questions to ask, unless you’re aware that questions are a transformative element, you’re not going to.
Again, the idea with the Curious Piano Teachers is that we again put out little things where teachers go, “What?” That’s really where the whole word curious, and of course, piano teaching, anything in life, it’s always evolving, constantly. Like I said earlier, there’s no point. You can sit back, fold your arms, and go, “Okay, that’s it. I’m done.” The more you dig in, the more you unearth. The more you follow a trail, the more it breaks off into all these other trails.
Again, Sally and I at the Curious Piano Teachers, we’ve got research backgrounds. We understand the importance of research. We understand that all this amazing, wonderful research that has been done very rarely actually filters down to piano teachers out there. If it did, we would actually be realizing, for example, having this focus on notation was actually not the way to go in the first lessons.
Again, research fuels curiosity, so yes, curious is a very important word for us because in essence, it talks about asking that what if question. Again, we did that. What if we could help piano teachers online? We didn’t know if that was going to work, because before then, we were only doing it in a one to one setting where we had a piano in the room, where we had teachers physically in the room with us. We didn’t know if it was actually going to work. Again, that was us being curious, going, “Well, what if? Let’s push the boundary here.”
Christopher: You mentioned something there, which I think is characteristic of your teaching philosophy or your approach, which is not going too heavy on the notation-based learning. I really enjoyed looking at your Let’s Play course, which, I don’t know if it’s fair to say, kind of equips teachers with a lot of different interesting tools they can bring to their lessons and unpack music in a very different way for their students.
I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that course and in particular, what jumped out at me was that you are unashamedly or unabashedly putting singing front and center, which is I think quite unusual for a piano teacher.
Sharon: It is, it is. Okay, so we have an online course called Let’s Play. It’s for piano teacher who teach beginners, so obviously that’s quite a lot of piano teachers. The idea is when you get the course, you get to see Sally and I teach lessons. Now, it’s not just one to one lessons. We’re also doing small group lessons.
Again, reflection is very much the center of this because you get to watch a lesson, and then you get to hear us talk about it, so you actually get to hear our reflections of what went well, what didn’t go so well, and subsequently, what would we do instead. We follow through with that, because again, no lesson’s perfect.
Again, the underlying premise of this course is that we develop musicians first and pianists second. If you think about it, one way that I will talk to parents about this is it would be absurd to get your child to learn to read and write without having first learned how to speak. Piano lessons that start with a cheater break, so often, it’s kind of a similar thing.
What Sally and I are very passionate about is that we develop musicians first of all, and the natural way to do that is through the singing voice. Sally has done a huge amount of work for the Voices Foundation. Again, it’s something to look at and Google. They do a wonderful course, and it’s actually where I did a course. That was one of the courses that I did whilst I was in the MTPP course and where I was struggling to get the practical side of this whole idea of sign before symbol, because it was presented quite theoretically, and I thought, “But how do I apply this in a piano lesson? What do I do? How do I develop musicianship skills for my piano students?”
Basically, I went in this Voices Foundation course, and it was for classroom teachers. Again, it’s being open-minded, it’s being curious. You could think, “I’m not a classroom teacher, so this will not apply to me,” but I came home with again, a toolbox full of what I needed to do in my piano lessons, developing singing.
Again, for example, you teach your beginner student a simple song. They then will be able to let’s say understand how to tap the rhythm, understand how to play that by ear, understand how to write that down. Obviously, the scope of this podcast, I can’t go into that, but again, that course looks at that.
It’s really developing musicianship and oral skills. It can work perfectly as something alongside a piano teacher book. It’s a way of songs that you can teach and then how you can break down the elements, so how do you teach students to understand rhythm and pulse. It’s broken down step by step in that particular course, with again, lots of songs and lines and examples that you can use in lessons.
Christopher: Terrific. Just to play devil’s advocate for a second, why do it that way? What’s the advantage of developing those skills away from the piano or in conjunction with the method book?
Sharon: Again, music needs to come from within. We can’t sit down at an instrument and bring music out of that instrument without the music first being inside, so the rhythm, the intonation, all of that. Again, people, again, singing, it’s maybe less obvious for singing to be used in piano lessons. People might say, “Well, a tuner comes in and that’s their job to tune the piano. Why do piano students need to learn to sing in tune?” Do you know what?
Again, from having done that Voices course myself, I developed so much musicianship skills and I realized the importance, where before I struggled to play a phrase musically, if you start with singing, the problems just dissolve.
Again, going through and understanding the approach and all the nuances of that approach, which is what I learned in the Voices course, and again, which is what the Let’s Play course is very much infused with, it’s this where we all need to have these musicianship skills. Music insight has to develop first, then internalization, then we can go to the instrument. We have got the full sound in our head. That’s why it makes sense.
Christopher: Fantastic. Well, as you say, unfortunately there’s only so much we can pack into a podcast. I feel like we can do a whole episode on that approach and helping students be confident singing and all of that good stuff, but I think for now, we’ll put a link in the show notes to that Let’s Play course. Anyone who’s interested to see what this might look like or what that toolbox contains, definitely go take a look at that course.
You mentioned earlier the importance of community, or from a different angle, we could talk about support and ongoing training and advice and help when you’re trying to learn something. I’d love to hear about your online teaching diploma course, because that’s something that I think a lot of people would assume needs to be done in person in an old conservatory somewhere.
You guys are taking a very different approach to preparing the next generation of piano teachers, and you’re putting community front and center as part of that. Tell us why you’re taking that approach and what that overall program looks like.
Sharon: Okay. Just to backtrack a little bit, we obviously set up a community, which is our online membership site back in 2015. It’s a big part of what we do. Again, prior to that, with Evoco, my focus was on offering courses to piano teachers. Again, these were courses where they were physically, again, in a building with me with a piano.
A year down the line, having started the membership site and realizing, “Yes, we can make a difference. We can do this online. This is working,” we then went back and looked at the idea of an online piano teaching diploma course. Again, there’s that ongoing element and varies the accountability. Again, there are the assignments, which we do have challenges for our members in the community, but again, we’re not chasing everyone out to make sure they’ve done their homework, as it were.
With this course, especially for teachers who either struggle to know what to do or who get started something and it just falls by the wayside because there isn’t the ongoing impetus, then this is what this course is designed to help them keep going to where they’ve actually got an accredited teaching diploma.
At the moment, we are currently offering the ATCL and the DipABRSM, so it’s a course that helps piano teachers prepare for either one of these teaching diplomas. Again, we’ve just launched the 2018 brochure. The deadline for applications is the 30th of June, and that course then, it’s a 15 month course. It starts in September and runs right the way through.
Everything, yes, is online, so we’ve got eight modules. We’ve also got a Facebook group for curious people who are curious to know more, because again, we’re in there answering lots of questions and actually diving a lot more into the module content a lot more than what we can actually put into a brochure.
What was really important for us was that we knew that piano teachers very often want to feel that they have a recognized teaching qualification, as opposed to a performance one. Of course, you learn a whole new set of skills, because I started out teaching, fairly soon after I started teaching, I got a performance diploma. There isn’t pedagogical skills that you then will learn about when you go and you do a teaching diploma. You’ve got another whole set of skills, and that’s what we dig into in these eight modules.
Again, we didn’t want people just to go away with a piece of paper. Obviously, in the same way that as piano teachers, we don’t want to use the exam syllabus as a curriculum, that’s again what we’ve done. We have gone, we have looked at the requirements for these two accredited piano teaching diplomas, and then we have created this eight module course around that.
It’s so that piano teachers don’t just get a piano teaching qualification when they follow through and they do the work, they also get, if you like, that toolbox of skills. The idea is that it’s transforming their teaching, so we have I think some sort of a tagline somewhere where it’s a piano teaching diploma for life.
Again, from what people are saying, we had a pilot course initially. We then ran, are currently running a small course, and then this year is a proper full run of the course, which we have also added three complementary live days, so we’re really excited about that.
We had our first Curious live event, one event in Belfast and one event in Oxford, where I had speakers from the US and Australia earlier this year. The amount of sheer enthusiasm, from bringing, it was largely members who attended, the energy was just awesome, just awesome. We thought, “We’ve got to bring our teaching diploma students together, as well.”
We have a day in London at the beginning of January just as they’re starting module three, and then later on, there’s two days in the summer where we’re also going to be delivering, Sally and I will be delivering with people from the ABRSM and Trinity. I know for sure, I was in touch with Peter Wild, chief examiner for Trinity Village, so he’s going to be working alongside me and delivering the content in one of the days. Again, we just haven’t confirmed who the person is from ABRSM.
Again, the idea is to connect with our members at those points because we know that bringing people together in a live setting is just very, very powerful. Now, we know that it’s in London. We do have applicants. We have people from Australia who have done the course, so obviously if you’re based in the US or Canada or Australia, you’re very welcome to take a flight to London, but of course, we’ve decided, “Okay, we’re going to make this complementary.” We haven’t increased the cost from last year.
This is another element not because we can’t deliver it live. We have had our first batch of students who have gone through the course and who have successfully completed the course, passed the course, but the idea is we’re just from Curious live, we’ve realized bringing people together is awesome. For students that can make it to London, it will be a rocking experience is all I can say.
Christopher: Tremendous. Well, I have to say on the podcast here, occasionally the topic of instrument exams and the traditional way of teaching comes up. I have to admit that it’s often a fairly negative narrative that the old way doesn’t work and the exams do more harm than good and the dry notation-based approach isn’t much fun. It’s just really refreshing and encouraging and exciting to hear about the work you’re doing at Curious Piano Teachers.
I think that there could be a whole new generation of teachers coming up now. I’m sure you also have some people retraining or taking their diploma even though they’ve been teaching for 10 or 20 years. To think of them going out and teaching in the way you’ve been describing that actually puts the student front and center as the hero and brings in musicianship from day one rather than just robotic playing, that’s all tremendous and very exciting.
If anyone listening has thought about becoming a piano teacher, or maybe you are a teacher and you want more of these tools and ways of thinking about your teaching to improve, definitely do check out the Curious Piano Teachers. We’ll have a link in the show notes and you can get that brochure for this course. It’s TheCuriousPianoTeachers.org.
If you’re not in that category, don’t avoid checking out that website. Don’t miss the opportunity because there is a ton on there. Whether you are thinking about teaching or thinking about learning, there is a back catalog of blog posts that will expand your mind in lots of interesting ways and no doubt give you a ton of new things to be curious about.
Sharon, it’s been such a pleasure having you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining us.
Sharon: Oh, it’s my pleasure. It’s been absolutely wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for having me, Christopher.
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The post Becoming Curious, with Sharon Mark-Teggart appeared first on Musical U.
Harmony in Western music would not exist without chord progressions – much of Western music, especially pop, rock, blues, jazz, and classical, is built on sequences of chords.
Creating a chord progression may be easy, but not all chord combinations sound good together, and if you created one at random, it’s unlikely that it would sound memorable or satisfying.
If you’re trying to write the “perfect” chord progression, bad news – someone has beat you to it, and countless other someones have written songs based around this earworm of a chord progression:
This particular progression is known as the I-V-vi-IV, and it’s no accident that thousands of songwriters have used it to great effect – it’s been described as a progression that sounds satisfying, hopeful, complete, and sentimental.
It turns out, there’s a whole stack of these common chord progressions that gained their fame through their strong sense of purpose, direction, and resolution.
Stay with us as we take you through a bit of theory to explain where these chords come from, look at the most popular ways in which they’re strung together, and explore how you can use these progressions to write your own unique tune without falling into the trap of music cliché.
We know that some chords sound good together, and some… not so much.
So why do some chord progressions pop and others flop?
To understand this phenomenon, we turn to the scale.
Every major and minor scale has seven pitches, and a chord can be built on each of the seven pitches. These chords are known as diatonic chords, and can be thought of as a family of chords belonging to one key.
Each of these chords follows the key signature of the key, and therefore there is a lot of note overlap – every chord uses three out of a possible seven notes, which means that these seven chords tend to sound pretty good together.
We can name these seven chords by using numbers:
As you may have figured out, naming a progression is as simple as stringing together the numerals representing the chords you’re playing.
Here’s a ii-V-I in C major:
Now that we understand where chords come from and how we name them, let’s look at how they’re often strung together. If you’re looking to absorb a bit more theory on the matter, Spread Worship has an excellent primer on scale degrees and chord nomenclature.
If we consider songwriting to be telling a story with music, then the order and selection of chords matters just as much as what words you put where – the order and context of the chords can mean the difference between a strong musical statement and a forgettable phrase.
The chord built on the first degree of the scale, or the tonic (I) chord, functions as “home base”, or the resting place, of the key. As you’re about to see, many progressions get their power from creating a path to resolution to the tonic.
If we’re thinking about it in terms of a story, we can create a chord progression that follows a sequence of stability – departure – tension – resolution – stability, with “stability” of course representing the tonic.
The dissonance and suspense that a good chord progression will create relies on strategic movement away from and towards the tonic.
How do we know what chords will sound good after the tonic? How about the chords that will sound good right before a tonic?
As it turns out, some chords naturally “pull” towards others. Understanding precisely why this happens is beyond the scope of this discussion. If you want to go deeper into how this pull works, look into The Circle of Fifths. Otherwise, let’s acknowledge the fact that some chords sound “natural” and “more right” after others, and let our ears confirm it.
Though of course there are infinite ways in which you could place chords in front of one another, this chart conveniently summarizes the pathways you can use to build the strongest progressions:
As we’re about to see, the most common chord progressions follow this chart almost to a tee.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the tried-and-true chord sequences that have wormed their way into thousands of songs and millions of ears. We’ll include a little cheat sheet for each one with the corresponding chords in each key, for easy playing.
The I, IV, and V chords, respectively called the tonic, the subdominant, and the dominant chords, are the strongest chords. Together, they form a trinity with which countless hits have been written.
This progression is the poster child of that “resolution” our ear seeks out in chord progressions. We begin at the tonic, move away from “home” with the IV (subdominant) chord, create tension with the V (dominant chord), and finally resolve back to the I chord.
Pro tip for songwriters: This progression works especially well in uptempo country, pop, and rock songs – think the Beatles and the Ramones. If you’re trying to write a catchy, high-energy tune, this progression is a good way to go.
Give it a listen:
It’s impossible to navigate the world of Western music without bumping into this progression. It shows its face in rock, pop, country, Blues, classical, and jazz. It sounds incredibly pleasing to the ear, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more harmonically solid sequence of chords.
C major: C-F-G
Db major: Db-Gb-Ab
D major: D-G-A
Eb major: Eb-Ab-Bb
E major: E-A-B
F major: F-Bb-C
F# major: F#-Bb-C
G major: G-C-D
Ab major: Ab-Db-Eb
A major: A-D-E
Bb major: Bb-Eb-F
B major: B-E-F#
The I-IV-V is important for another reason: a slight variation on this progression forms the backbone of one of the most influential styles Western music has seen…
Whether the blues song you’re listening to is about loneliness, a cheating wife, or an empty wallet, there’s a high chance the chord progression behind the words looks a little something like this:
The progression can be illustrated as follows:
Though there’s a return to the I chord after the IV, there is tension built up through this “incomplete” return, which is resolved at the end of the pattern once the progression returns to the I chord at the start of the first bar.
The history of this progression is deep and fascinating, and its uses are not limited to strictly blues music! Learn all about the origins of the blues and the uses of the progression with 2 Minute Guitar.
This may be the most popular iteration of the 12-bar blues, but it’s not the only one – Guitar Chord showcases some fascinating spins on the classic progression, including a blues jazz progression and a minor 12-bar progression. If you’d rather stick with the original, Fredrik Hertzberg shows you how to change the groove of the blues progression with some tiny tweaks.
Take the I-IV-V progression, shuffle the order a bit, introduce the minor vi chord, and you get the I-V-vi-IV progression. This added chord brings with it a layer of emotional complexity and depth.
This progression gives you a bit more leeway than the I-IV-V in terms of writing vocal lines – the progression is versatile and can support a lot of different melodies.
Just watch how many popular songs have used it to create songs that tear at the heartstrings:
This chord progression has been described as comforting, hopeful, confessional, and, well… sentimental. Little wonder, then, that it’s the darling of the Billboard Hot 100.
C major: C-G-Am-F
Db major: Db-Ab-Bbm-Gb
D major: D-A-Bm-G
Eb major: Eb-Bb-Cm-Ab
E major: E-B-C#m-A
F major: F-C-Dm-Bb
F# major: F#-C#-D#m-B
G major: G-D-Em-C
Ab major: Ab-Eb-Fm-Db
A major: A-E-F#m-D
Bb major: Bb-F-Gm-Eb
B major: B-F#-G#m-E
Pro tip for songwriters: Trying to tell a story with your song? This progression gives you some room to fit in a nice narrative, both with lyrics and melody – perfect for that power ballad you’ve always wanted to write.
This one won’t be new to anyone familiar with jazz standards – in fact, some describe it as the workhorse of the genre, in the same way that the 12-bar Blues are built on that modified I-IV-V pattern.
The V chord creates the tension needed to resolve to the I chord, and the ii minor chord is the perfect setup (refer back to the chord progression chart!):
Outside jazz standards, you’ll find this progression used in R&B, pop, rock, and country.
C major: Dm-G-C
Db major: Ebm-Ab-Db
D major: Em-A-D
Eb major: Fm-Bb-Eb
E major: F#m-B-E
F major: Gm-C-F
F# major: G#m-C#- F#
G major: Am-D-G
Ab major: Bbm-Eb-Ab
A major: Bm-E-A
Bb major: Cm-F-Bb
B major: C#m-F#-B
Pro tip for songwriters: You can play around with this progression by bouncing between the ii and the V chords several times – and venturing to other chords as a tangent – before finally resolving to the I chord. It’ll make the resolution that much more satisfying and strong.
This progression was initially found in Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major, a piece that was largely ignored after the composer’s death:
The chord progression enjoyed renewed popularity starting in the 1970’s, when songwriters started to repurpose it for use in pop songs. This trend continued well into the early 2000’s:
Though it may appear complicated, this progression is basically just an extended I-IV-V. The result? Much of the same punch of the classic I-IV-V remains, with some added movement and feeling.
C major: C-G-Am-Em-F-C-F-G
Db major: Db-Ab-Bbm-Fm-Gb-Db-Gb-Ab
D major: D-A-Bm-F#m-G-D-G-A
Eb major: Eb-Bb-Cm-Gm-Ab-Eb-Ab-Bb
E major:E-B-C#m-G#m-A-E-A-B
F major: F-C-Dm-Am-Bb-F-Bb-C
F# major: F#-C#-D#m-A#m-B-F#-B-C#
G major: G-D-Em-Bm-C-G-C-D
Ab major: Ab-Eb-Fm-Cm-Db-Ab-Db-Eb
A major: A-E-F#m-C#m-D-A-D-E
Bb major: Bb-F-Gm-Dm-Eb-Bb-Eb-F
B major: B-F#-G#m-D#m-E-B-E-F#
Pro tip for songwriters: Something about this progression seems to invoke a kind of bittersweet nostalgia. Do with that what you will…
You’ll be amazed with just how many songs use those progressions. Numerous other progressions are mere variations or rearrangements of the above progressions.
Here’s a quick list of some other common chord progressions for you to listen for and play. Which of the above common chord progressions do they remind you of?
Referring again to our favourite I-vi-V-IV medley, the guys at Axis of Awesome have transposed each of the “four chord songs” into the same key to prove a point.
The originals are written and played in a variety of keys, usually to suit the vocal range of the singer.
Looking to quickly transpose? Simply refer to our handy cheat sheets above. When doing this, it’s often easier to find the tonic (I) chord and use that as your point of reference.
With all the keys laid out in front of you to see, transposition on piano is straightforward if you can count tones and semitones.
Say you’re trying to play our favourite I-V-vi-IV. Start with your root chord. Count five semitones down – there’s the root note of your V chord. Two semitones up from V is your vi chord, and four down from your vi chord is your IV.
This semitone pattern applies in any key. Once your hands get used to the movements, you’ll barely need to look at your hands to plunk out the progression – muscle memory will kick in. Just remember to watch those key signatures!
Flowkey’s fantastic guide demonstrates just how to get your fingers (on both hands!) moving on the keyboard, using the I-V-vi-IV progression as an example.
Playing chord progressions on guitar is effectively an exercise in muscle memory.
Capos make it possible to play any chord in any shape you want – so take advantage of this when transposing.
This chart outlines the chord changes that occur when you capo specific frets:
| No capo | Capo 1 | Capo 2 | Capo 3 | Capo 4 | Capo 5 | Capo 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | |
| D | D#/Eb | E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | |
| E | F | F#/Gb | G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | |
| G | G#/Ab | A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | |
| A | A#/Bb | B | C | C#/Db | D | D#/Eb | |
| Dm | D#m/Ebm | Em | Fm | F#m/Gbm | Gm | G#m/Abm | |
| Em | Fm | F#m/Gbm | Gm | G#m/Abm | Am | A#m/Bbm | |
| Am | A#m/Bbm | Bm | Cm | C#m/Dbm | Dm | D#m/Ebm |
Say you’ve got a I-IV-V progression in D major. You know the chord shapes well, but you’d like to sing along in the key of A major.
Simply clamp your capo down on the fifth fret and arrange your fingers in the same shapes as before – you’ll be playing different chords, but there’s no new muscle memory required!
Ukulele players, we haven’t forgotten about you: though capoing isn’t nearly as common
Let’s take another look at the Axis of Awesome video:
Though the progression I-V-vi-IV is undoubtedly a repeat offender, there’s something that keeps all these songs from sounding the same.
In nearly all of the featured songs, the vocal line plays a very prominent role and massively contributes to the song’s status as an earworm.
As mentioned above, the I-V-vi-IV is a fairly versatile progression and can support many different melodies overtop – the four chords give some room for experimentation with the melody of the vocals and with the phrasing, or how you sing the lyrics in the rhythm and structure of the song.
Compare Elton’s John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” [1:12] to Jason Mraz’s staccato-like lyrics in “I’m Yours” [0:45]. The progression supports both vocal lines wonderfully, but to very different effects.
The underlying piano line of “Don’t Stop Believin’” makes for quite a different sound than the pop-punk sound of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated”, shared chord progression or not.
In their video, the Axis of Awesome use similar instrumentation for each song to draw attention to the similarities in chords. However, listen to the original versions of each song, and you’ll start to notice how different instruments help invoke specific musical moods in the same way that different chord progressions can – for example, a string section can mean the difference between a pop song about love and an epic ballad.
Though the boys from the Axis of Awesome maintain a constant rhythm and tempo throughout their medley, the originals vary greatly in their rhythm, drum patterns, and BPM.
Toto’s “Africa” takes obvious cues from the drumming traditions of the continent, lending it a lively, playful feeling. In contrast, OneRepublic’s hit “Apologize” features R&B percussion that gives a more laidback, rolling rhythm.
Rhythm affects the overall “vibe” of a song just as much as the melody does – it can separate a dance track from a folk tune, and a punk rock jam from a good ol’ country song… even if they share a tempo and a time signature!
“Common” does not have to mean cliché – the staying power of these progressions is undeniable, and with some creativity and experimentation, these popular progressions can be your songwriting partners-in-crime.
But let’s get real. There is a definite element of cheesiness in many (if not most) of the songs that the Axis of Awesome employs for their satirical purposes.
How do you avoid the cheese and strike songwriting gold?
With your unique lyrics, phrasing, rhythm, instrumentation, melodies, and other embellishments, of course! LearnGuitarMalta takes a look at building unique songs using the above progressions, with sheet music of famous examples to help guide you.
When writing a song, deciding how to end it can be a hand-wringing decision – do you repeat the chord progression you’ve been using for one final hurrah, or throw in a twist? The Musician Training Center gives you some ideas on how to go out with a bang at the end of your song.
Call in some friends for help in the form of tools specifically designed to help you write a hit.
The Circle of Fifths is an excellent compositional tool, as Subaqueous Music explains, and has the added bonus of helping you understand exactly where these chords are coming from.
The beat might be the most important part of a dance track, but melody comes in at a close second. For the producers out there, SoundShock Audio teaches you the chord theory you need to know to write a hit.
Remember: a chord progression is a mere skeleton of a song. Everything that you build up around it is meant to decorate, highlight, and enhance the bare bones.
Let’s do a little recap with the main takeaways:
Whether you are approaching your study of chord progressions from the angle of learning theory, playing popular songs on your instrument, or writing your own music, the popular progressions outlined here are an excellent starting point to understanding the traditions and genres of Western music as a whole. These progressions are not the be-all and end-all of modern music as we know it – but they sure are an indispensable part of the foundation.
Experiment with seeing how far you can go with just these simple chord progressions – you may surprise yourself by writing a tune that’s anything but cliché.
The post Exploring Common Chord Progressions appeared first on Musical U.
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