Encouraging students to know their chords and understand how they work

The Strad July 2025 issue featured my recent article. I know that I sound like a music theorist when I say this but chordal awareness is such a useful shortcut to understanding what is going on in music. I like my students to be able to glance at a score and be instantly aware, say, that they are looking at a melody constructed from a two-octave D minor triad or a diminished 7th. Just as a young child learns to read by sounding out every syllable, then becomes more fluent by learning to spot the larger patterns in the individual letters, being familiar with chords helps a musician build not only reading skills but a broader musical facility and understanding.

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