When teaching teens piano you’re walking a fine line between keeping motivation high and technical skills strong. You want your teens to be enthusiastic, but you also want them to be learning progressively harder skills. This, no doubt, results in a silent tug-of-war in your mind… Should I ignore that hiccucp or should I fix it? Will she get discouraged if I point out that error? Will I lose his cooperation if I insist on correct fingering?
As piano teachers we feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to impart proper technique to our students… but once we’re “in the trenches” simply keeping teens coming to piano lessons can take over as our main priority. And while most of your teens’ “technical troubles” can be solved with scale, chord and arpeggio practice, these workouts are pretty much the most boring things you can assign to teen piano students. Until now…
Today we’re tackling technique troubles and blasting away boredom with a pop lead sheet that will have your teens grooving away to the D Major triad… without even realizing they’re completing that “dreaded” technical work!
A Teen Lead Sheet To Reinforce Triads In D Major
There is something magical about lead sheets. They can transform technical work into masterpieces with nothing more than some chord symbols and rhythmic variation.
And now we’re using this magic to breathe life into triads. Your teens’ reactions when it’s time to “drill” triads will be forever changed after today. Their faces will light up when their typically-mundane musical drills get replaced by pop-rock practice!
Today’s teen lead sheet printable reinforces triads in the D Major scale. If your students have never played from lead sheets before, don’t worry, we’ve included all necessary instructions for a successful first experience. This printable also coordinates beautifully with “The Sonata Session” from The Beethoven Sessions.
You can download the activity here or by clicking on the image below.
Are Your Teen Students Playing From The Sessions Books?
Have you had a chance to check out The Beethoven Sessions, The Chopin Sessions, and The Amadeus Anthems? If not, it might be time to introduce this repertoire collection to your teen students. These pop-infused, classical collections combine the magic of yesterday’s masterpieces with the motivating sounds of today’s pop hits.
You can listen to samples from our teen collections below. If it sounds like music your teens will love, visit Amazon to get The Amadeus Anthems, The Chopin Sessions and The Beethoven Sessions.
Rita Baker-Schmidt says
I love that I can use these with my guitar and uke students as well. (With me playing piano on the treble section and them handling the chords.)
Andrea says
Awesome! Glad you can use it right away 🙂
Maureen McNamee says
I may be misunderstanding how to use these sheets because of pattern 3. The example shows three notes in the measure (half note, quarter note, quarter note), but 4 chord progressions. Is it possible to explain this a little further? Thanks and sorry for being slow on this!
Andrea says
Hi Maureen – change chords after completing each measure – so play the HQQ on D and then again on A and then again on G and then again on A. This page simply provides a “warm-up” to get your students used to switching chords before they head into a lead sheet (if they’ve never used one before)
Leslie says
I love this! My students are really enjoying the “Session” books. I am trying to use more chords and lead sheets this year and this is the perfect thing. Thank you for creating these resources for us to use!
Andrea M Dow says
Hi Leslie! So glad to hear they’re really enjoying the books 🙂 Using lead sheets and chording in your studio can open the door to so many fun projects for your students. Enjoy!
Susan Pope says
I don’t understand why you use a C Major Chord to illustrate the rhythm pattern to play in D major?! Why do you not just use a D major chord?!
Andrea says
Hi Susan! Thanks for commenting. As your students will be learning to change chords on this “practice page” the chords provided on the staff are simply a rhythmic guide. Students learn the rhythm first (we put them in C for the sake of simplicity so as to not have to include key signatures) and then the suggested chord progressions underneath are in D for them to practice with before they put the rhythm + chords into the context of the piece. This is why the instructions say, “Here is the left hand rhythmic pattern” and then, “try it on the chord progression below”.
KM says
On the second page, where it says Bm the notes written are actually a D major inverted chord. Is this a mistake?
Andrea says
The chord symbols above the treble clef indicate what the LH should be playing (not what’s written in the treble clef) 🙂 The instructions on page 2 help if you haven’t played from a lead sheet format before.
Amy Laybourn says
I’m excited to try using this with a student this week! Question – do you recommend using a certain pattern from the first page with the lead sheet? Or let student decide? Or mix up different patterns into different parts of the song?
Comment: I too was confused about the C major 5th being pictured… might be better if the patterns were shown off staff as a rhythm alone.
Are more of these lead sheets for different keys available somewhere? Love this concept!
Olwyn Atkinson says
You have a lot of great resources! How do I access them ?
Andrea says
Hi Olywn – everything on the site is free, so you can start by going through our Free Printables tab on our home page. We also have http://www.wunderkeys.com with over 100 free printables as well 🙂
Reva Jean Beck says
Please tell me more about the Lead Sheet Book. What is the name of it, and price, how many songs are in it?
Does it give student step by step how to practice? I teach private piano and have several teenagers. I have
never taught a lead sheet — so what do you think would benefit me the most? My students learn the scales,
cadences, arpeggios, and play them at various speeds.
Andrea says
Hi Reva! This printable is done in a similar style to what you’ll find in our WunderKeys Intermediate Pop Studies for Piano series. You can read all bout it and find out what’s inside by clicking on the book covers and the on “see inside”. We use lead sheets to reinforce triad practice as a “pop triad etude” approach. https://wunderkeys.com/piano-books-music/#very-useful-piano-library