A student was having trouble understanding inversions. He wanted to change the notes as he inverted them. I have a great set of blocks for such a time as this. We discussed the fact that if I tipped him upside down, he wouldn't get a different head or arms. If I tipped him upside down, he's still the same boy.
Here's a D Major chord in its 3 inversions. On the piano, F# is a black key, so the block is colored accordingly. Even though the left most note is different in each inversion, it is still a D Major chord. D is called the root of the chord, just like his feet are the place he's most comfortable standing. He can stand on his head, but most of the time, he stands on his feet.
Cool huh?
Those are very cool-- a novel & I bet effective way for teaching this.
ReplyDeleteHey John-don't know if you can use a set, but email me offline and I'll hook you up with some!
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