Comments on: Monday Mailbag – Teaching Pentascales

By: Mindy

Mindy — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:18:08 +0000

I would love to know how others go about teaching the I V7 chord pattern. I use a scale book primarily. I do go about explaining it to them and some students get it, others have no clue and cannot convert the pattern to any other key!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:28:17 +0000

I like how you use the time while their hands are lined up to teach them about hand shape and arm weight. I’m going to start doing that.

I start teaching pentascales as soon as their fingers seem strong enough. I start them with “twosies” and “threesies,” where they go back and forth between two fingers and then three fingers. When they can do that with no problem, they are usually ready for pentascales. If not, we just go back and do more “twosies,” “threesies,” and “foursies.”

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:36:53 +0000

I love your chord shells idea! Am stealing that for sure!

I did a two-part post on teaching pentascales at my blog back in January. Here are the links…

Part One:
http://lowepianostudio.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-pentascales-half-and-whole.html

Part Two:
http://lowepianostudio.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-major-pentascales-formula.html

By: Mindy

Mindy — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:02:05 +0000

I like the idea of doing the chord shells to get the hands in a nice rounded position. I think I will work on this with my very youngest students.
When I teach pentascales I will talk about whole and half steps as well, but teaching C and G is confusing for students because it lays out easily on white keys so the concept is lost. Often I will introduce D and F as well, then go back to C and teach the minors alongside. It is not such a hard concept for them to lower the third.
I read in Frances Clark’s book that she would have students write out their scales to help solidify the concept and I have had students do that occasionally.

By: Atara

Atara — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:51:12 +0000

Our area has a “Technique Tournament” every year. I use that as a guide. It’s GREAT! I teach the kids the C Pentascale as soon as they can do it! They don’t need music to play them and it really helps when they start learning notes.