October Mountain King Challenge

Honestly, the circle of 5ths challenges are the gift that keeps on giving. When I'm teaching variants of In the Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg, the minor 5 note scale becomes the Circle of 5ths warm-up.

Learn the pattern in the key of a minor, then play it in all of the keys. Keep track by checking off each one after it is played.

How many different ways can this be played/ adapted?

• Hands together as written

• Hands separately where each hand plays the melody

• Quietly

• Loudly

• Fast

• Slow

• In chromatic order (up in half steps)

• Around the circle

• Eyes open

• Eyes closed

• Staccato

• Legato

• Sneaky

Once a student gets started playing, often imagination takes over and they start improvising melodies with this as a starting point.

Benefits I'm seeing are improved fine motor coordination, pattern recognition, expressive playing, transposition, and a warm-up that can be adapted as a student gets more skills.

Personally, I start my students with the cards because it gets them going, we use them until they are no longer needed.

With the minor scale card, a basic exercise around the circle takes around a minute (I time it, occasionally, so students are more likely to do it at home).

The pdf is a free download (scroll down).

Hall of Mountain King challenge 2024.pdf

Download PDF • 191KB

5 Note Scale and Chord Key Finder Cards

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