Chord Lessons With Special Education Students

Submitted by Sue Michiels, Los Angeles, California

Idea posted June 13, 2003

I teach chords on hand bells, Boomwhackers® and glockenspiels. I start with the hand bells. I have the students sitting in color order with all the red low C sitting one behind another, et cetera. I tell them, that in the key of C, the C will be the most important note and everything is worked out from that note by skipping a bell or a Boomwhacker®.

When teaching the IV chord, I literally walk from the C line to the F line by counting and stating that the F will be the root of chord IV and then skip one to A and then another one to C. Since my bells are only one octave, I fill out the chord by stating that on the piano, I can have the high notes but with the bells if we don't have the D in the V chord we use the low D, and I even throw in the F for the V7.

I had a Special Education class today absolutely enraptured by the harmony. They remembered what the chords were in, too. I felt so proud of them when they played the Westminster Chimes with me pointing at the color chart of the music and then added the three chords at the end. I had to call some people from the office to hear them as they were beaming from ear to ear. They did better than my fourth and fifth graders, so don't ever give up on Special Education kids. They went back to class singing the notes of the three chords and the principal couldn't believe that this was the class which is often in trouble and frequently in her office! These kids can find D on the piano and from there work out all the other notes. They are my star students and want more!

NOTE: V7 means the three note chord of the fifth note from do and adding the seventh note.