Episode Summary
All the students want to play them! But did you know that lead sheets and chord charts teach many important and practical piano skills? In this episode, Davis and Olivia will hit the highlights of why and how you should teach lead sheets and chord charts to all your piano students… even the beginners.
Guest Hosts
Davis Dorrough and Olivia Ellis have been collaborating as The Creative Piano Teachers since 2020, when they found themselves, like most people, with some extra time on their hands. Since then, they have co-authored several books, produced a teaching blog and newsletter, and presented on many creative topics. While Davis teaches in an independent studio in Ohio, Olivia is Associate Professor of Music at Messiah University in Pennsylvania. You can read more about them and also snag some of their fun, free resources at creativepianoteacher.com.
Items Mentioned in this Episode
Easy Piano Lead Sheets & Chord Charts series
Creative Piano Teacher website: creativepianoteacher.com
Fake Book Fundamentals: hollymccannpianostudio.com
Way Cool Keyboarding: pedagogyinmotion.com
Transcript
Amy: Welcome to episode 83 of the Piano Pantry Podcast. I’m Amy Chaplin, creator of this podcast and the blog at pianopantry.com. While I love being your regular host, I’ve had a great time this year lining up guest hosts to share directly with you here on the podcast every six to seven weeks or so. I find it a fun and easy way to keep things fresh.
Plus, I love helping teachers know the best of what’s out there, so I felt this was a great way, outside of the Friday Finds post series on the blog, to highlight other wonderful teachers and content creators doing great things. Today, you’re in for a real treat with a duo that has landed the role in my book as one of bloggers.
I can’t call them completely new anymore, as they’ve been at it since 2020, but one thing is for sure, they always produce quality work as you’ll hear today. They were excited to share with you on a topic they’re really passionate about.
You’ll hear some great advice on the topic, as well as gain some great resources that can help you and your students along.
Davis Dorrough and Olivia Ellis have been collaborating as The Creative Piano Teachers since 2020, when they found themselves, like most people, with some extra time on their hands. Since then, they have co-authored several books, produced a teaching blog and newsletter. And presented on many creative topics while Davis teaches in an independent studio in Ohio, Olivia is associate professor of music at Messiah University in Pennsylvania.
You can read more about them and also snag some of their fun free resources at creativepianoteacher.com.
Olivia: Hi, I’m Olivia Ellis.
Davis: And I’m Davis Durrough. Together we are the creative Piano Teacher team.
Olivia: We love to brainstorm creative ways to motivate our students.
Davis: And we love sharing those ideas with other music teachers.
Olivia: So Amy asked if we would like to guest host her wonderful podcast. And we were so excited to talk about a topic near and dear to our hearts. Leadsheets and chord charts.
Davis: Yes I’m so excited, Olivia, because we’ve been doing so much with lead sheets and chord charts lately. And, honestly, I have to credit Olivia for turning me on to lead sheets in the first place because even though I knew how to use them, having played gigs with quite a few different groups over the years, I really had not been including them as a consistent part of my teaching.
But now that I’m using them more in lessons, I’m so pleased with the practical skills that my students are learning. So maybe we should start by discussing why teachers should consider teaching lead sheets.
Olivia: Definitely. Some people might think of this as one of those extra skills, but there are so many reasons why we should all be working on lead sheets in our lessons.
First of all, my students really want to play them. Most of my students ask for help on this, and they will play them at some point regardless of whether or not they get the help and lessons. Now, personally, I would like to be able to teach them how to play them well and with confidence. And I’ve found that this is a great source of motivation, especially for my high school students.
Davis: There’s such a great way to foster independent music learning. Usually, after I’ve taught a student to read a few lead sheets and they get some tips for accompaniment patterns, it’s super easy for them to learn other songs, and they can learn them on their own very quickly.
Olivia: It’s also a nice activity to assign when students are at home or do not have as many lessons for whatever reason.
Last year, I assigned Christmas lead sheets to several students to take home and work on over the holidays when we didn’t have lessons for a few weeks. They loved working on them, and honestly, it surprised me how well they came back and played them for me in January.
Davis: I think they really get motivated by these kinds of assignments, especially when they have some freedom and flexibility.
And at the same time, the beautiful thing about lead sheets is that the students are learning some very practical keyboard and theory skills that will stick with them. For example, instead of just doing a theory book assignment, lead sheets really help students understand how chords work on a much deeper level because they are doing so many hands-on work with them.
Olivia: You know that I love music theory, and I also love that these activities open the door to talk about those topics like tonic and dominant, inversions, seventh chords, some altered harmonies, and a lot more. It’s just so much easier for students to understand and get it when they’re applying it in a lead sheet.
Davis: They’re also a terrific way to work on accompanying skills, and if you think about it, it’s a much easier entry point to accompanying than having a student read a fully written out part. That can actually be pretty challenging for students who don’t have much experience, but playing from a chord chart and creating a simple two-hand accompaniment is something even younger students can get started with.
Olivia: I completely agree. I actually ask my students to have their families sing the melody at home while they accompany using a lead sheet or chord chart. Now, one of my students is part of a very large family, so she asks her siblings to sing along with her, and they take turns. I think they had a lot of fun singing all the Christmas songs last year.Even after Christmas, they may have driven their mom just a little crazy.
Davis: There’s definitely a limit on the number of times one can truly enjoy Jingle Bells, I think.
Olivia: Three is my limit. Court Charts. Also instills so much creativity. Since the music is not written out, students get to decide what chord voicing or accompaniment style matches the music.
Davis: And they get to decide how to vary their playing to match the mood or section changes. For example, sometimes when we get to a softer passage in a song, I’ll have them use chords in a higher register. Or, if we’re using a hymn lead sheet, We’ll talk about how to expand chords or play octaves to get a bigger sound on some verses while scaling back on others for contrast.
It opens up a great discussion about creating variety for different sections or verses in a song. And, when they get really good at playing from lead sheets, we also talk about adding lead-ins to fill in between changing bass notes or even between some of the melodic notes.
Olivia: Or, doing my favorite thing, reharmonizing or altering the harmonies to give a fresh sound.
Davis: Ooh, I love what you did there. So fun. All of this feeds into their ability to improvise. They’re getting used to chord patterns and learning how to embellish with limited material. I think this is something that we can incorporate in every level, not just with our intermediate to advanced students. It’s so useful and students get excited when they are able to quickly and easily learn their favorite songs.
So now that we’ve explored the why of lead sheet playing, how do we start working with students on lead sheets and chord charts?
Olivia: That is an excellent question, Davis. The first thing is to find lead sheets and chord charts that are at the student’s level.
Davis: This can be tricky. I have quite a few lead sheet books and even some that are labeled easy or beginner. But for my early-level students, they’re just way too challenging, and we usually haven’t covered the chords or keys that they need to confidently play them.
Olivia: There are a few beginning lead sheet resources we have used and wanted to share with you today. Some of the method books include lead sheets as part of the curriculum now. For example, did you know there are lead sheets in the Faber Piano Adventures series? Sometimes, these are stashed in the theory books, so you’ll want to check those out.
But the lead sheets go along with the chords and concepts they’re already learning in their lesson book. Holly McCann also has a series called Fake Book Fundamentals. Exercises and song examples, a complete how to for all ages. This is a really amazing resource that is full of fake book instructions and preparatory exercises that get students ready for lead sheet playing.
It moves step by step and it starts at the elementary to late elementary level by working on the C scale and blocked chords in C major. And then it gets progressively more difficult and then it starts to include examples so students can try out what they’re learning. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite fake book, how to guides for younger students. You can find Holly’s books on Amazon or on her website at Holly McCann piano studio. com.
Davis: I’ve also used the Way Cool Keyboarding series by Deborah Perez to help prepare for lead sheets. And she also does something in these books called Way Cool Chords. And they’re these short chord exercises that not only teach students how to play chord charts.
But also teach some of the altered chords, like add-to and suspended chords. She also introduces different patterns to use for two-hand accompaniments. Now, this is primarily designed as a group piano method for kids, but I definitely use it to supplement my private lessons and to prepare my students for lead sheet playing. You can get those keyboarding books at pedagogyinmotion.com.
Olivia: These resources are awesome for learning about lead sheets, but you know me, I needed a lot more examples. And I wanted chord charts, too. I caught myself creating all kinds of homemade chord charts for students and trying to find more lead sheets of songs they knew so they would have plenty of practice. But I kept running into issues. Have you ever printed a lychee and then started marking out all the slash chords or sevens because the student just wasn’t ready for them?
Davis: Oh yeah. I’ve done that many times, especially for my younger students. But Most of the collections out there are just a little too advanced, and Olivia and I have complained about this problem to one another so much that we decided we had enough.
Olivia: Yup, and that’s why we put together a collection which has a very simple title, Easy Piano Lead Sheets and Chord Charts. We just wanted extremely easy examples and simple instructions to get our students started, even if they were working on their own. So this is what we came up with, and it’s just one resource, but it’s been working so well in our studios that we hated not to mention it here.
Davis: The series has three levels and has books from different genres. I personally love level one because lead sheets really don’t get any easier than this. It’s primary chords without inversions, easier keys, sometimes a simplified melody or rhythms if needed. Perfect for beginner students.
Olivia: Exactly. And that level one book also includes a star system, which ranks each song by difficulty.
So you can quickly see which songs to work on first. This really helps me give students some choice in which lead sheets they want to learn while still making sure they’re learning sequentially. For example, I can say that this week, choose any lead sheet that has two stars.
Davis: We also included instructions for playing lead sheets versus chord charts, along with several accompaniment patterns to try.
Olivia: We thought it was important to give students the opportunity to try both lead sheets and chord charts. Because you never know when you’ll need to play one or the other. And most of the time, you don’t get to decide. You just get handed one to play.
Davis: As we mentioned, Level 1 is the most simplified, but Level 2 contains standard lead sheets that follow the original harmony and key of the song.
And Level 3 is the most challenging and interesting, with reharmonizations and jazzy-sounding chords.
Olivia: As of the time we’re recording this podcast, we have Levels 1 and 2 available in the Christmas Songs and Easter Hymns collections. A book of folk songs is coming soon, and there are a few others in the works.
I’ve loved our Christmas and Easter selections, but for my own teaching, I’m really excited to use the folk songs with my group piano classes. Davis and I tried to simplify these as much as possible, and I’ll be using that level one book with those true adult beginners who are just starting out at the piano and want to play songs quickly.
It’s just a lot of fun.
Davis: If you’re interested, check out the show notes to get more information and a link to a few free lead sheets from Easy Piano Lead Sheets, and be sure to try out some of the other lead sheet books we mentioned too.
Olivia: And at the end of the day, you could always create some lead sheets or chord charts of your own student’s favorite songs.
Whatever you use, you just want to make sure it’s at their level so they don’t become frustrated when they start this exciting new adventure.
Davis: Okay, so you’ve got some lead sheets or chord charts ready for students. What’s the next step?
Olivia: I like to have students go through the whole song and play each chord. When they do this at first, I don’t worry about the rhythm. We’re just making sure they understand how to play every chord. This is a great time to talk about different octaves or positions and make sure the students are moving efficiently from one chord to the next. Once the chords are easy to play, I’ll have them play it in rhythm. I almost always sing along as we do this, so it keeps the piece flowing and they have to work on playing the chords in time.
Davis: Playing in time, that always seems to be an issue when we’re teaching lead sheets or anything else for that matter. But one solution I’ve come up with for that is if the original recording of a song is in the same key as the lead sheet. I’ll just have them play the chords along with the recording. The sound model really seems to get them into a groove and helps with timing.
Olivia: That’s a fantastic idea.
Davis: Now you could stop there and just have your students learn to play an accompaniment with the chords only, but for lead sheets I’ll often have students learn the melody in the right hand and play the chords in the left hand.
So we start out with the melody alone first. And singing it is a great first step to getting the melody in their ear. Then we work out any fingering or complex rhythms, which are pretty common in contemporary music. It’s a lot to do at the same time, so I think the important thing to remember is to build in levels of increasing difficulty as you are learning a new lead sheet with a student.
It could take a few weeks, but eventually, once the basic chart is sounding confident, you can start looking at some ways to create more complexity. Such as varying the accompaniment patterns.
Olivia: Knowing different accompaniment patterns can be really helpful. I always start with block chords, and then I do what I call pulsing chords. That’s basically just a chord that repeats on each beat. And then, if it’s a chord chart, I’ll have the students play a left hand low note, while the right hand pulses the chord.
Davis: That accompaniment pattern you just demonstrated covers a lot of contemporary music.
Olivia: Yes. If you can do that, you can at least get started with most any song.
Davis: But to add even more variety, you can talk about other patterns, like arpeggios and broken chords.
Olivia: You can also add variety by switching the registers, adding those little lead-ins or walk-ins we talked about, and paying attention to dynamics.
Davis: I think bringing up dynamics makes a good point too, because even though we aren’t working on a Beethoven sonata or a Chopin prelude, We still want students to play with good shaping, voicing, dynamics, and all of those other musical details, right? It’s not like all of that is going out the window. Creating accompaniments from lead sheets can be another way to work on all of these wonderful pianistic skills.
Olivia: 100%. You can probably tell we love lead sheets. It’s just such a great way to bring new excitement to lessons, prepare students for many practical situations, and continue to work on their musicality. If you’re lesson planning for fall or thinking ahead to winter break activities, we highly recommend you give them a shot. Special thank you to Amy for inviting us to guest host, and to you, all of her amazing followers. Please reach out to us if you have any other ideas or questions.
Davis: We loved being with you here today. And we’d also love to connect with you on Instagram or Facebook at Creative Piano Teacher. Or you can find more helpful teaching tips and resources at our website, creativepianoteacher.com. Hope we see you there soon, percent
Amy: with everything Olivia and Davis said today. I’m excited to try out their new resources as well as the fake book they mentioned from Holly McCann, like Davis, which I have used. Deborah Perez’s Way Cool Keyboarding books quite a bit over the past 13 years as a nice entryway into playing lead sheets and chord charts.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a few more resources right up the alley of this topic. You can get a free download of a list of 147 tunes to harmonize on pianopantry.com. Now, these aren’t lead sheets or chord charts, it’s just a list of some folk tunes popular tunes and Christmas tunes that you can play using primary chords.
There are even some that use just tonic and dominant. It’s a handy little sheet to keep near your teaching space for reference. Also, if you’re interested more in incorporating an audition-based approach, check out my Happy Birthday by Ear and Christmas by Ear resources, also available on pianopantry.com. Thanks once again to Olivia and Davis, and we’ll see you next week.
