If you’re working with students who are transitioning from elementary to late elementary level, you’ve probably noticed that moment when familiar blocked chords suddenly need to become something more complex. It can feel like watching your students hit a wall, and honestly, it’s one of those teaching challenges that keeps us all on our toes.
Why Teaching Chord Patterns Can Be Tricky
While I love composing, it doesn’t mean that teaching chord patterns has always come easily for me. It took me quite a few years to understand that not every student can just mimic or read the chords from the page. And even then, can they actually play it musically? That’s the real question, isn’t it?
It’s why I’ve learned to love getting my students to explore chord patterns in many different ways within the same lesson. Maybe we start away from the bench with rhythm work, or they just listen first. Maybe we completely turn what’s written on the page upside down to create something entirely new. (The defiant part of me has certainly brought this approach into my teaching and composing.)
The truth is, at the elementary level, your students are comfortable with single-line melodies paired with blocked chords at phrase endings (like “Sunbeams Through the Canopy”), maybe some simple hand-over-hand arpeggios. But as they move into late elementary repertoire, those familiar patterns need to evolve, and that’s where things can get overwhelming for both you and your students.
That’s exactly why I put together this video with eight multi-sensory activities that make teaching chord patterns so much more manageable and engaging for everyone involved.
Teaching Chord Patterns: Hearing Activities
Before we get our hands involved at the piano, I’ve found that starting with hearing activities helps students internalize these new patterns. It’s like giving their brains a chance to process what’s coming before their fingers need to figure it out.
Chord Bridges: The Gateway Pattern
One of my favourite starting points is introducing chord bridges early in the process. These use just two notes from a full chord, which takes away that overwhelming feeling students get when they see three notes stacked together.
You can play chord bridges either blocked or broken, just like full chords, which gives your students options right from the start.
Play the chord progression from their piece as both blocked and broken chord bridges. How does it change the mood or rhythm? You can hear both blocked and broken chord bridges in “Thunder on the Horizon”.
The beauty of this approach is that it adds harmonic richness without the stress of coordinating all those fingers for full chords. Students get to experience success while building toward more complex patterns.
Finding the Pulse Through Movement
Here’s something that works incredibly well at this transitional level. Get your students moving to find what I call the “heart notes” of their pieces. Instead of diving straight into complex rhythms, we walk together to the strong beats while listening to their music.
This simple activity helps them internalize that steady pulse before their hands need to tackle the intricate rhythms that become so common in late elementary pieces. It’s amazing how much more musical their playing becomes when they’ve felt that pulse in their whole body first.
I share how we did this in my studio here.
Teaching Chord Patterns: Hands-On Learning
Once your students have heard and felt these patterns, we can move to hands-on activities that let them experience the physical differences between various chord approaches.
The Mixed-Up Chord Strategy
For students who need practice with both blocked and broken chords, I use what I call the “mixed-up chord” approach.
If their music shows blocked chords, I have them roll the chords quickly like an arpeggio, then hold for the remaining duration. This builds the wrist movement they’ll need for broken chord pieces.
If the music calls for broken chords, we flip them around and play them blocked using the same fingering.
Students instantly understand both versions, and it prevents that feeling of being stuck with only one way to approach chord patterns.
Simplifying When Needed
Sometimes the best teaching move is knowing when to simplify rather than add complexity. I call this “pass it on chords” – taking a complex pattern and breaking it down to its essential elements first.
For example, if a piece has passing notes within chord patterns (like “Leaf Dancing on the Breeze”), we might start by removing those passing notes and playing just the basic broken chords. Once that movement feels solid, we add the passing notes back in.
Your students can even experiment with placing passing notes in different spots to hear how it changes the musical effect. Can you imagine how excited they will be when they get to create a “new” song?
Teaching Chord Patterns: Reading Activities
Connecting these different ways of playing chords to reading them in the music helps students recognize patterns instead of seeing just a bunch of individual notes.
Heart Note Annotations
After we’ve done our “heart note walk,” I pull up their music and we annotate those important beats right on the score. Digital music works particularly well for this. If you teach online, Zoom even has a heart stamp that’s perfect for the activity!
Some of my students hum while they mark these spots, while others move their arms subtly as they identify the heart notes.
When they play the music again after this process, it’s noticeably more musical because they’ve internalized that pulse.
Pattern Recognition Skills
Having students highlight chord patterns in their music sections is probably the quickest way to see if they’ve really internalized the rhythm and can recognize it visually. If you expect them to practice these pieces at home during the week, this step ensures they understand what they’re looking at.
I prefer using digital copies for this activity because one click erases all those cute markings and the music is ready for the next student!
Teaching Chord Patterns: Writing Activities
The activities that really solidify students’ understanding of chord patterns are the ones that get them writing and creating.
Rhythm Pattern Practice
Clapping rhythms and having your student write them out might sound old-school, but it works incredibly well.
In my online studio, we use whiteboards held up to the screen. My students love that they don’t have to share their whiteboard or marker with siblings! It’s the little things that bring joy, isn’t it?
It’s low-tech but so effective for quick rhythm practice. Especially when you have new patterns like the dotted rhythms in “Tangos at Dawn”.
When your students can write out the main rhythms from their pieces, you know they’ve truly internalized those patterns instead of just mimicking what they hear.
Mini Composition Projects
At this level, your students need to master:
- Chord bridges
- Different ways of playing blocked or broken chords or
- New rhythmic patterns
Have them compose short sections as a fantastic option for solidifying their learning.
I pull the chord pattern directly from their current piece – just four to eight measures is perfect.
If the chords aren’t integrated with the melody, they add a melody on top.
If the chords are integrated into the melody, I write the pattern on alternating lines and have them experiment with different inversions on the blank lines.
Building Skills That Transfer
These multi-sensory approaches to teaching chord patterns work because they help your students understand the musical logic behind what they’re playing, rather than just memorizing finger patterns. When your students experience chord patterns through hearing, moving, playing, reading, and writing, they develop skills that transfer to every piece they’ll encounter in the future.
The rhythmic foundation work connects beautifully with dotted quarter note activities. Mastering those basic rhythmic patterns makes these chord techniques so much more accessible for your students at this level.
What’s your biggest challenge when teaching chord patterns to students at this transitional level?
Do you find that certain approaches work better with some students than others? I’d love to hear about your experiences and any creative solutions you’ve discovered in your own studio!
