Chopin Changes
- Sarah Lyngra
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
My son was here for a month this summer. He's a jazz double bassist studying in Norway. He is a huge fan of Barry Harris, and was encouraging me to listen to and copy what Harris was teaching.
Here's a video from Harris on Chopin Changes
Changes are basically cadences. In jazz they are always referred to by number.
My students are learning chord changes and scale degrees in every single lesson. I'm using all sorts of terminology, even with the younger ones that's completely confusing- until the day it isn't. A good example of this is the 6-2-5-1 chord progression, which happens to be why I'm sharing this newsletter. In the key of C, the 6-2-5-1 is A minor- D minor- G-seven- C Major. In the colors for the chords I often use, it's orange-purple-red-yellow. By coincidence, because I created the card in the set before I started noticing the patterns in a lot of the pieces I teach- there is a key finder card with these chords.
If you put this card behind your keys and line the yellow arrow up with C you get A minor- D minor- G 7- C major chords- in closed voicing, namely all of the keys are within the span of an octave.
I wrote an exercise that goes with it:
And recorded a video to play it, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/@pianokeyfinders it's the 7th live stream (technical issues are preventing me from linking it here directly).
What ties it all so neatly together here is that the chord card is the changes for the Chopin Waltz in A Minor that you may already be teaching:
This is a draft, because I arranged it ages ago, and I'll be redoing it this month to add the changes . . .
The 6-2-5-1 chord pattern can be spotted in pieces by pretty much every composer you are familiar with as well as more contemporary things like Barbie Girl and Fly Me to the Moon.
Typical lessons start with rolling a 12 sided die to pick the key and playing through a few 6-2-5-1 patterns from the first download here. This gets muscle memory going. We use the chord card above in the beginning, sometimes with a 5 note scale card for the left hand. After a few months, the cards are no longer needed and the chords are comfortable shapes in the hands.
With the exception of putting together the latest lego build while I write out a happiness card at the end of a lesson, lessons are spent playing. (https://www.pianokeyfinders.com/post/lego-in-action and https://www.pianokeyfinders.com/post/noticing-in-lessons)
I've been using the chord and key finder cards for 3 years with students, and the improvements across all levels of students are remarkable.
Thank you Barry Harris for your words on Chopin Changes. If you have any questions, please reach out. I would love to hear from you.
Happy Playing!
Sarah
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