| Piano students need to learn music theory to tap into | | | | easily by associating them with acronyms for short |
| all their musical potential. This involves some | | | | ideas which are fun to recall. The primary chords in the |
| memorization of facts, however, so that they come | | | | key of D are D Major, G Major, and A Major. "Dga, |
| easily to mind while playing. Don't let this intimidate your | | | | Dga Drum' is the "beat" is use the remember this. Just |
| or your piano student at home. This is not hard to do, it | | | | come up with ideas that are fun for you and |
| just takes a little creativity and planning. Here are three | | | | memorizing these will be easy |
| creative memory techniques that work, even for | | | | 3. Funneling the material. Organizing the material you |
| young children. | | | | want to remember from General to specific will also |
| 1. Organizing the material for easier storage and | | | | make recall easier. For example, memorize the Circle |
| retrieval. Since music theory can all be seen on the | | | | of Thirds. Then memorize the Seven Keyboard Triads, |
| piano keyboard, visualization is an important tool or | | | | which are made from the Circle of Thirds. Then |
| organizing information that will be easily accessible. | | | | Memorize the Major and Minor Chords from the 7 |
| Scales, for example, should be learned on the | | | | Keyboard Triads. |
| keyboard without looking at notes on the staff. Mental | | | | Follow these examples and create more creative |
| keyboard pictures of the scales are much easier to | | | | ways of your own to memorize the music facts you |
| store and retrieve than notes on the page. The same | | | | want to keep at your fingertips. Remember this - you |
| is true for memorizing chords. Start with memorizing | | | | can memorize all the music knowledge you want to |
| the keyboard imagery first, then draw the notes out on | | | | with a logical plan to get it done. Even very young |
| the staff and play them. | | | | children can use the tecnhiques above because |
| 2. Adding meaning to the material through association. | | | | they're so effective. |
| The primary chords of each key can be memorized | | | | |