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Ohh awesome! ... I didn't know the piano teachers festival was going to be on this year, since they called it off years before. (I know a friend who attends this religously so I'll let her know about it). Have fun!

I've found AMEB's Music Craft teaches harmony in a manner more similar to that which I experienced at university. I had to relearn everything I did in Theory of Music exams once I got to uni.

This student though is already part-way through the course work for 5th Grade AMEB ToM. It'd be pointless to change her to a different syllabus now. But it's good to have other ideas for other students in future.

Please do tell us your 6+ explanation. I'm interested!

I teach both piano and basic theory. My students learn theory in the course of their exercises and pieces. I teach them scales, and it goes from there: scales lead to modes, arpeggios lead to chords, chord progressions lead to sequences and so on so forth. I usually don't teach voice leading because my counterpoint is short of terrible and I'm not comfortable teaching something I'm pretty bad at.

I had a fairly advanced 9-year-old and she had no problem grasping the rudiments. We had only started applying them before I had to let her go (because of time constraints with my degree, not because of anything else). Try your student on theory. Start small. Point out parts of her pieces that are interesting. Insert talk of form into your lessons. You may be surprised.

I'll do this in D Major

An augmented 6th chord is a type of harmony that comes before a dominant chord. So...start with a dominant octave:

A


A

Next, write the notes that are a half step in, and be sure to change the letter names:

A -> G#


A -> Bb

This interval (Bb - G#) is the augmented 6th. Next, add tonic:

G#

D
Bb

Next, add one more note. Another tonic for Italian. Scale degree 2 for French. b3 for German:

G#
(D, E, or F)
D
Bb

And Bingo! There's your augmented sixth chord. To resolve the chord properly, just reverse the process. The G# goes up to A, the Bb goes down to A.

In an Italian sixth, one of the tonics goes to the 3rd of the V chord and the other goes to the 5th.

In a French sixth, the E becomes the 5th of the V chord, so the tonic goes to the 3rd.

If we resolved a German sixth the same way, we'd get this:

G# - A
F - E
D - C#
Bb - A

But that means creating parallel 5ths (F-E and Bb-A.) The solution is to leave the D and F alone, creating a i64 chord:

G# - A
F - F
D - D
Bb - A

This is why theory books tell you that German 6ths have to resolve to i64 chords.

And there you have it. A 10 minute explanation that tells you how to find the notes for and correctly resolve an augmented 6th chord with correct voice leading.

I write each step out on staff paper (instead of just naming the notes like I did above.) The whole thing fits neatly on one piece of paper.

Kreisler - nice!!

Credit where credit is due, though. Got most of it from one of my professors in college - Skelton at Michigan.

Very neat, Kreisler.

And welcome back, Minaku!

I am going to that conference/festival.
Looking forward to the presentation & meeting other teachers.

BB

Please do come and say hello! I have not yet met a piano teacher is the whole country who participates in an online forum for piano teachers!! Or should I start the seminar by asking "BB, where are you?!" (don't worry, I won't do that!).....

Kreisler, thank you for the explanation. It really is simple and easy (comparatively speaking)!



Thanks, Currawong. Been a long time away!

I saw my prodigy for the first time today.

So apparently the parents' definition of "struggling" is not the same as my definition. She's not struggling at all with harmony. She has the Blitz Books. She understands the rules and applies them correctly. She just doesn't catch all of her consecutive 5ths & 8ves and has a bit of an issue with using chord ii. It's like teaching a 14-year-old without the hormones.

Hilarious. And sounds like you'll actually have some fantastic lessons with her!!!

Now that sounds good!

Hi Elissa,


I was there and waiting to say hello after the first session but we were called to go in, so I did not have the chance.
Your presentation was great, with lots of valid points for teaching young beginners in the repertoire selected.

Couple of other points: I had forgotten just how good a steinway D sounds ;-),
Yes, 8th Grade is the new Preliminary.


BB

Hey there! I was wondering if I'd seen you but hadn't realised it was you! I'm so sorry... I'm so glad you enjoyed it - was the rest of the day fun? I would have loved to have stayed... but I need to get up to the Print Music Trade Fair for Alfreds first thing in the morning (with my 3 year-old in tow) so I've been a bit frantic with being ready for that (and the seminars I'm doing with Alfred's next week...). Have a great day tomorrow - I feel terrible that we didn't get to say hello....

And yes, didn't the Steinway sound nice!! I did enjoy playing those pieces on it....