Accompaniment and Amazing Grace in Level 2
Found in: Accompaniment, Foundation Songs
Andrea B.
I am trying to figure out what to do with the Amazing Grace in Level 2. I have started the Accompaniment program with many of my groups at the end of Level 1 or towards the beginning of Level 2. I think this is a great idea, I love getting them started in a new stream and expanding the breadth of the program as early as I think they can handle it, which surprised me how well even the young kids take to it.
My question is: what do I do with this Amazing Grace in Level 2 where the 7th chord is introduced?! It’s at a place where the students are busy working on Amazing Grace in D or even E, and it just hasn’t seemed right to me to try to introduce a new concept in accompaniment, I feel like I’m pulling them in different directions. For some groups I have skipped it and will come back to it when we get to Danny Boy. For other groups I have gone ahead and done it, but I have no idea how to put it on the playlist. They have to play Amazing Grace two different ways in a the week, which is not terrible, but it is not sitting very well with me.
Should I wait to introduce Accompaniment at all until after that point? But then I still don’t know how to have them practice it with their playlist when I do start Accompaniment. Right now, I have Amazing Grace on their playlists with the key they are working on next to it. I have thought that we could just have it as a project for the week and then not practice it while they are focusing on learning their chords with Amazing Grace. But then, I would have to skip it to do a Level 2 review when they finish the Level, which doesn’t seem quite right to me. And they will need the 7th chord in Star Spangled Banner, I believe. So basically they have to learn it, I just need a practice suggestion.
Cheri S., Utah
I usually start Accompaniment partway into Level 2 (I’m pretty sure that’s what the training recommends), so they learn Amazing Grace with 7ths after they’re reading Amazing Grace & Auld Lang Syne in C, and after we learn about chord shapes, but before playing songs in other keys. I use Songs for Children (and a few songs from other books) to get an earlier accompaniment experience during Level 1 and early Level 2. Once they’ve mastered Am Gr w/7ths, then we move ahead to the other keys.
As far as marking the playlist, I always tell my students that the newest version of a Foundation song is the one they always play. A Foundation Level 2 version replaces a Level 1 version. Also, students can have separate playlist lines for Foundation Amazing Grace and Accompaniment Amazing Grace. To mark the Foundation line, they play it w/7ths. To mark the Accompaniment line, they play an assigned key and write that in the box.
Karolee G., Idaho
It sounds like you are looking for a way to not overwhelm your students with 1,000 different ways to play Amazing Grace. 🙂 This is how I view, and manage, the Amazing Grace’s:
- Whether or not I have started the Accompaniment program yet, I teach the level 2 7th chords when I get to them in the course of the level. I usually present them like “hey, here’s this really easy, really cool thing you can do when you play Amazing Grace that makes it sound even better!” I teach the concept on the piano, and then show them where it is in the chord sheet in the Reference book. From that point on, I tell them that when the playlist says “Amazing Grace”, they need to play it WITH the 7ths. It replaces the level 1 version. (Sort of like Alma Mater Blues.)
- When they learn to “read” Amazing Grace in C in the Accomp book, I just have them add the 7ths to the appropriate chords. I have them write the 7th’s in the book. If we already did Amazing in C in the Accomp. book, I just take them to that page and show them that it’s the same thing, and add the 7ths.
- When they move on to Amazing in D, and later E, I still only have one Amazing on the playlist, but then I ask them to write the key that they play it in the box instead of a slash or checkmark. I ask them to alternate.
- After they feel comfortable with D and E, I “challenge” them to add the 7ths, if they haven’t already. If they can remember the “trick” to making a 7th on C and G, then they can translate that to any other chord. Some of my students have done this without my asking them to. They get used to hearing the 7ths in those certain spots and can’t stand to play it without them anymore.
Sarah F.
How about learning to put LV 2 Amazing Grace in with the Acc. Amazing Grace. Let them see how to use 7th chords in different keys! So take the same concept and where the Lv 2 7ths are, put them in the same places in the Acc. book. Such as, C C7 F C (AG key of “C”) now in their Accompany books lets say they are working with the key of “D” you would replace the second measure with a D7 Chord instead of a regular “D” chord. While you are doing this explain why you are changing the song. (You know putting more color to the picture on the canvas) Also, instead of just using the 7ths in just C and G chords,(LV 2) they will be learning how to build 7ths in other chords. (i.e. D7, A7, E7, B7) Just an idea….
Mark M., New York
After a similar issue early on, I decided to only introduce the Acc. 1 immediately after Amazing Grace 7ths, precisely to avoid too many AG projects going on at once. I usually also try to have completed by then the AG variation rhythm from Foundation 1 and at least its first arrangement as well.
Ian M., Indiana
What I do is teach AG with 7th chords, and then maybe the week after, in the Accompaniment stream, ask about whether anyone has noticed the difference. Sometimes it’s yes, sometimes no. Then I draw their attention to the pattern of where the 7th chords go in the Foundation piece and ask them if the pattern would work with AG in D, or E, or any key we play it in.
Of course the answer is yes, and so I encourage them to mark the locations for the 7th chords in their Accompaniment books. And of course we’ve talked about how to play any 7th chord, not just C7 and G7, though if necessary you can reinforce this by asking “how would you play D7?” and make sure everyone understands the concept.
