All keys every week

This is the year (2026) that you and your students warm up going around the circle of 5ths. Last year I did a new circle every month. I think the VW bug was my favorite.

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This fall I'm using the tracking sheet in the middle.

Here's what I do:

• At the beginning of a lesson we choose something to play around the circle; for example, 5 note scales, a chord progression, a song.

• Depending on the level of the student, we choose one hand or the other or both.

• Then we either roll a 12 sided dice, to see what key we're starting with, or we just pick one.

• Then the student plays whatever it is and colors in the circle above the note.

• Then we choose the next key. Sometimes we go either clockwise or counterclockwise, other times the students roll the die again.

Coloring in the circles shows progress and how far we've come. I have a set of 12 colored pencils I keep by the piano for this purpose. If we don't have time to do all 12 keys, we know which ones we already did.

I have students doing chord progressions using the cards like the ones below.

Double Sided Cadence Cards

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But now I've started using the two octave cards and with playing Happy Birthday with scale degrees.

2 Octave Major Scale and Cadence Card

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And, we are using the 5 note scales to play Ode To Joy, singing either scale degrees or solfege.

This has been such an interesting exercise because it is multi layered.

Going around the circle randomly reinforces keyboard geography, and having kids get up and roll the dice helps with attention.

Going around the circle in 5ths (clockwise) or 4ths (counterclockwise) helps with pattern recognition and how all the keys are interrelated.

Singing the scale degrees or solfege has also had some interesting benefits with ear training, sight singing, and note playing accuracy.

These things can be done either as a 5 minute warm up, can be used when a student hasn't practiced and you want them to spend the whole lesson playing, or as a stand alone lesson.

Here's a pdf of the Circle Tracking Sheet with Happy Birthday in Scale Degrees and Ode To Joy in all keys with scale degrees and solfege.

Circle Tracking with Happy and Ode.pdf

Download PDF • 427KB

If you're not that comfortable with transposition and singing scale degrees, you're in good company. It's still new-ish to me, every time I sit with a student doing this I am amazed at how much I keep learning and figuring out.

Quite frankly, I'm a little jealous of my students, they all have a much better understanding of the circle of 5ths than I did when I was in my 20s.

I hope you give this a try. I haven't had a boring lesson in years.

Happy Playing!

Sarah