Music Teacher's Helper Blog

I have a lot of students with the desire to create their own music and songs. Over the years, I have been able to get things going, in the songwriting department, by teaching chord studies and then eventually encouraging students to piece the chords together in their own unique ways. I like to start with the C Major scale. After learning the Major scale and the chord progressions that follow (The I, IV, and V7 chords), it’s time to find a song with only the C, F, and G chords (there are so many out there). I first show them how to read the chords in a fake book, and then I give them a little pattern to follow: either the root note in the left hand bass line and the right hand playing the block chords in 4 beats, or maybe just some simple arpeggios.

They are usually thrilled with the beautiful music that they are making without actually reading music. After they have learned how to put 3 chords together, I usually encourage students to try piecing the 3 chords together in a song that they make up. They can either write words to it, or make it an instrumental. If it’s an instrumental, the teacher can always make up a duet part. That’s a good way to show improvisation in action.

Here are some good songs to begin chord studies with:

“Love Me Do” (C, G, D7)
“Iris” (Em, C, G, D)
“Surfin’ USA” (A7, D, G)
“Twist and Shout” (D, G, A7)