Pages

Friday, April 2, 2021

A Fun Way to Get Piano Students "Hooked" on Chords

Playing piano chord progressions may be considered a necessary evil for some music students, but with the aid of HookTheory.com the mundane becomes marvelous!
You can explore different genres (children's, Classical, Disney) to find online lead sheet excerpts with backing tracks. Because some cover images are not child-friendly I prefer to provide direct links for my students.
Although the youtube playlists are in specified keys, you can Change the Key and still use the electronic piano backing track for chord transposition practice.
Loop the Chords
Provides a Rhythmic Framework
Familiarize Students with Chord Symbols
Hook Theory Change it to the desired Key (I start with C Major). Play the chords on the piano by following the chord symbols (I- IV- I etc.).  
Try singing along as you accompany yourself.
HookPad is a songwriting tool that allows you to create melodies and add chord progressions easily.
Here are few Songs with only I-IV-I-V chords.

Key of C
Kiss the Girl  Verse and Chorus (include V-IV)
Down on the Corner Verse and Chorus 
Cecilia (Piano)


Key of G
Nearer My God to Thee substitute V7 for vii use slow strings keyboard setting

Key of F
Old MacDonald  


Key of E
500 Miles Verse and Chorus (includes IV-V)

Key of B-flat

Key of E-flat

Key of D-flat
Try Everything Chorus (Zootopia)

Related Posts:

For a list of more Primary Chord songs and Resources organized by the difficulty of progressions check out my earlier post on the value of singing with chord progressions and transposition.

No comments:

Post a Comment