Chords around the circle

Another week of Tiny Experiments is over. I have an adult students who is learning Coldplay's Clocks.

The tiny experiment we have been running is going around the circle using the chords from the first 4 bars of music. Then playing them in all keys. She's really enthusiastic and actually wrote out all of the notes in every key using letters, so she could keep track of where she was. I ended up creating a music file for her with the the chords, in every key (of course) to make it a tiny bit easier, and to share it with other students.

Yesterday I shared it with a younger student who has a visual impairment and struggles with reading but not with playing. He's going on vacation for a week, so I won't see him for a couple of weeks, so his lesson was an experiment of sorts to see if he even liked the sounds and could get his head around the 4 bars.

What I learned is the 4 bars was too much, especially if I wanted him to go around the circle, but, because the rhythm was the same for each bar, we could do each chord separately around the circle with the rhythm. That was better for him because it was easier to keep the fingering consistent.

Chords around the Circle

You can see in the above example, the E flat chord is a first inversion, the B flat minor chord is in 2nd inversion, and the F minor chord is in root position.

We used the chords and inversion cards for each chord separately. The 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, rhythm was satisfying to play as were the minor chords. And, both my adult and younger students noticed that E flat-B flat- F are going around the circle so predicting the next chords was easy.

My adult student is really interested in learning Elton John songs in their original keys. Playing these chords around the circle of 5ths is preparing her hands and ears for being able to play the songs she really likes and not worrying about what key they happen to be in.

You can find the inversion cards here:

Root Position Triads and Inversions

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If you're interested in playing around with these chords, you can download the file here: If you find the octave in the left hand a challenge, play one note, and if you don't like the range, change it.

Coldplay Chords - Full Score.pdf

Download PDF • 97KB

I had another adult student try these chords. She liked it, and said that the rhythm reminded her of a couple of other pieces she's already playing.

Maxine Casper, a teacher friend of mine, had mentioned that I didn't use any dynamics or articulations in these files. That was a brilliant observation. It hadn't even occurred to me. Now, I'm having students add their own, so in addition to playing around the circle, they are adding personalized elements to their playing.

I'm very fortunate to have brilliant teacher friends :-)

Happy Playing!

Sarah