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How to Teach Chord Progressions to Beginners – Video Tutorial
By Tim Topham | Piano Teaching
To start the year off with a bang, I’ve been teaching most of my students about chord progressions and how easy they are to construct.
For my junior kids and those who like pop music, I tend to stay away from music reading for at least a week to get everyone having fun and being musical without the pressure of reading.
In fact, for my complete beginner students, I don’t use a method book for at least their first 10 weeks of piano lessons.
Everyone loves playing chords – they are the easiest way to sound good on piano, especially when a student’s reading is still slow.
With a bit of rhythm and pedal, even the simplest progression can sound pretty epic!
Read to the bottom for 27 free, easy and great chord progressions to inspire creativity in your students.
In this lesson, I show you a little trick I like to use to spice up chord progressions.
I show you how to add a common tone to a chord progression, but change the notes around it to make it sound more interesting.
Check it out and try it out!
If you’d like to see an older video I recorded on how to teach chord progressions to beginner piano students, check out this video.
This will take things back a step for you.
Also don’t forget to check out my No Book Beginner framework for more great resources.
If you’re new to teaching chords, then please check out some of my other resources including:
I have put together a handout featuring 27 easy chord progressions your students can play.
These aren’t based on real songs, but are just chord progressions I have played and taught over the years.
They range in difficulty, so there is always something for one of your students!
Print these out and take them out on a rainy day, or use them as a part of your creative lesson starter ideas.
To get your copy, please enter your details below.
Tim Topham has one mission in life: to stem the tide of children quitting music lessons by helping teachers maximise student engagement through creativity, technology and innovation. Tim hosts the popular Creative Piano Teaching Podcast, blogs regularly at topmusic.co and speaks at local and international conferences on topics such as pedagogy, business, marketing and entrepreneurship. Tim has been featured in American Music Teacher, The Piano Teacher Magazine, Californian Music Teacher and EPTA Piano Professional. Tim holds an MBA in Educational Leadership, BMus, DipEd and AMusA.
