When I was a piano student I hated theory homework. [True fact: I usually did my homework in the car on the way to my lesson. The results were quite messy and incomplete.] Now that I’m a teacher, my favourite subject to teach is theory.
Humour is a great teaching tool. This year’s rudiments class has been working really hard. We’ve made it through a tough unit on time signatures and rests, and we’ve just completed a unit on major and minor triads. In today’s class we had a vigorous game of Musical Spoons. Four students, three spoons, and a deck of music cards. The students had to collect (or discard) cards to make a major or minor triad. And then grab a spoon – before anyone else did. And once the grabbing started… Best review class ever with lots of laughs as the students tried to make triads under pressure.
And for those in the know, remember that the dominant triad in a minor key always has an accidental because it contains the raised 7th.