I can't help it. The change in my students since I started teaching around the circle is remarkable, interesting, amazing, satisfying, gratifying, fun. . . It's like watching the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly over the course of a few months of lessons.
According to Daniel Levitin, in his new book, "I heard there was a secret chord, Music as Medicine," there are 3 phases of learning.
The awkward stage (isn't awkward an awkward word?)
The rapid development stage
The slow acquisition stage
When teaching anything around the circle most everyone starts awkwardly. (I'm using the major 5 note scale key finder cards here in my example.) Students may struggle with finger coordination, playing with an even rhythm, finger placement, one hand may be weaker than another, and in general, playing can be hard.
After a few repetitions, students get the hang of the motion, the sound, the feel, and playing becomes more comfortable.
It's in the slow acquisition phase that things become more interesting. -at least for me. As my students are playing around the circle of 5ths:
they are starting to hear the patterns
their fingers move more smoothly
they shed the need for the cards and are playing on their own
they start grasping the harmonics
they start seeing and hearing the pattern of the scale (or chord, or whatever we are working on) in their pieces
they start noticing when they hear it on the radio or in a song
they play the patterns hands together
they start making up melodies
they start experimenting with harmonies
they start noticing that things which were once hard have become easier
Of course, this doesn't happen overnight. But, it does happen over-week, and over-month.
There are countless ways to get you started with going around the circle but you can start with these three:
Of course, once you have established a habit of playing in all 12 keys, it's easy to get creative.
10 more ideas using 5 note major scale cards (some will become future videos)
Play scales hands together
Play scales in descending order
Play the first notes of Jingle Bells around the circle
Start on a key other than C and go around from there
Play sheet music bingo - see how many times you can find scale fragments in your pieces
Change the rhythms as you play the scale
Change the meter- three-four anyone?
Name the scale degrees as they are being played
Ask your students for ideas (they are generally both more creative and smarter than I am when we do this)
Not for the faint of heart- play with closed eyes (this comes after a few months for some students)
In the beginning I establish the round the circle habit, and once that's there, I expand it to chord progressions, octave scales, boogie and blues patterns, 7h chords. . . I'm having a lot of fun, and a lot of success with this. It's leveled up my teaching.
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