Visual Descriptions of Chords
Found in: Arrangements & Variations, Playing-Based Methodology
Emilie B.
I just had to share this nice moment from one of my lessons.
I recently showed the CAGE chord to one of my students, a young boy. I had him hold his hand on the chord (the one chord) and encouraged him to find a way to remember the shape of the notes of that chord.
He immediately said, “Oh those are the animals” (meaning the G and A) “and they’re in the cage” (meaning the F and B, which are not pressed down) “and the people are outside watching them!” (meaning the people were the E and C). It was such a clever observation. Look at the CAGE chord on the keyboard and you’ll more easily see what I mean. Wish I’d thought of it!
I was so delighted I could have hugged him! From the mouths of babes… I get as much delight from my students as they get from me in the lessons I present. I’m going to use or mention this animals-in-the-cage imagery (along with whatever students still dream up) in all my CAGE lessons now.
Just an aside, and much to his credit, this student comes in every week and knows every song, no hesitation. His playlist is almost always filled out completely, every song, every day is marked – I’d like to frame his playlist. I think that if you have a great student they are more likely to come up with great observations.
Sheri R., California
I’ve been saying this for years about the animals in a cage!! However, I mostly use the black notes as the bars of the cage and not the F and B. I like the idea of the watching people–and they’ve put a little space between themselves and the cage!
I try to see images in as many places as possible. For example, the second to last chord of Dreams Arr. 1 is C, D, F, and G. I call it a Dinosaur Chord because as you hold finger 3 out of the way it looks like a dinosaur! Adults like to call it another animal. See if you can guess! When we play the chord at the end of I’ll Be There (no finger 5) I whisper to the kids that the dinosaur is umm, well, I’ll let you figure that one out too. . .they always laugh. If you figure it out you’ll no doubt realize why I didn’t want to say it on the Forum!
The more imagery I can see and encourage my students to see the more tools they have to remember the song. I tell them finger 5 in Bishop is on D, for Disneyland, (“see the front and back gate–D flat and E flat– and you want to stay at Disneyland all day, right?, well that finger stays there the whole song”). Since I’ve been pointing this out in that graphic, storytelling way, I find that I don’t see the problem I used to of students moving that finger around a bit.
As I’m writing I just thought of another idea! How many students come back with Finger 3 on the B flat? (Nobody has yet taken me up on the tongue-in-cheek request of putting nail polish on Finger 2 for the week as a reminder!) Well, we can tell them there are 3 chords in the song and you have to count to three to create the first chord. “One = finger 1, Two = Finger Two, and Three = the third black note (B flat).” If they’re counting to 3 and using finger three then two isn’t represented anywhere so it would be wrong. Maybe that’s more complicated in the telling, but I’m going to try it! You can tell I like thinking of tricks to make what Neil has made so easy to understand even easier!
Another: Night Variation (I call it Night Bridge because those four notes are called a “bridge”) is only the right hand so to remember no left hand the image is of a lonely traveler (RH) walking across a bridge during a storm and he makes it home only to hear a clap of thunder (Low A).
If you haven’t tried doing this at all yet, maybe you will start looking at pieces in a different light–it’s really fun to see what you and your students can come up with! They are really all over the place. (Section B of Tear for a Friend where the LH changes position and the thumbs are sharing a note: the friends (thumbs) are hugging goodbye.) How cool would it be if we all shared these little tidbits on Simpedia!! : )
Cindy B., Illinois
In teaching the arrangement, Dreams 2, I’ve discovered a fun way to describe the 2nd chord. Since the 1st and 2nd fingers need to remain on c and d, and the 3rd and 5th fingers need to move up, creating a bit of awkwardness between the 2nd and 3rd, I tell the students about Star Trek and Spock’s ‘live long and prosper’ greeting that requires them to separate the 2nd and 3rd fingers. Of course, the children usually have no idea who Spock is, but they ought to, don’t you think?