ChiArts Tutoring

I have recently been volunteering as a music theory tutor at the Chicago High School for the Arts. My obligation (and privilege) is to go the Chicago High School for the Arts every Tuesday from 5:00pm-6:00pm and tutor a student who is struggling in music theory.

My first day was a little intimidating. It was the first time I got to meet my student. I had no idea what level he was going to be at or what his teaching wanted me to help him with. It was like walking into a dark room and not knowing where the any obstacles were placed. After meeting my student, everything started to fall into place. Luckily for me, his teacher had left small list of the things my student was struggling with. Our first lesson was, "How to construct a Major scale". I began with the WWhWWWh method. This concept didn't quite click with my student so I decided to try to make it relate to him more. Because he was a Chicago native, I came up with, what I call, the Michael Jordan scale. Most people around the world, and especially Chicago natives, know that Michael Jordan's basketball jersey number is 23. So I explained that a major scale is built with 2 Whole steps, a half step, 3 Whole steps, and finally another half step. This concept seemed to click way faster and to test him, I set him down at a piano and had him play major scales started on various pitches. Using the Michael Jordan method, he passed that test with flying colors.

After having such a wonderful experience on my first day, the following days were a lot less nerve wracking. My next lesson was " how to construct Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales". To teach this, I broke down the word Pentatonic to its prefix, "Penta", which means 5. I explained that this referred to the scale only have 5 tones. This seemingly minute notion was actually the most important concept that helped my student's accuracy in correctly building Pentatonic scales. Once he knew that he only need 5 different pitches to construct this scale, the next step was to figure out which scale degrees he needed. I created a little worksheet for him to complete, which involved him writing out major scales and numbering them 1-7. From that, he would then pick out scale degrees 1,2,3,5, and 6 to create a major pentatonic scale. I also created a similar worksheet but for the minor pentatonic scales with degrees 1, b3,4,5, and b7.

My third lesson was a little different. I got the opportunity to tutor 3 students this time. I had to change my one on one strategy and adapt it for a small group setting. Our goal was to learn all 3 forms of minor scales. I went one form at a time and showed them how to construct each. After I taught them how to make each minor scale, I had them prove their comprehension in the form a game. I wrote 3 different starting pitches on a white board and had them each choose one. Then I had them race to see how could build that minor scale the fastest with 100% accuracy. This friendly competition was perfect for the group that I had. They really enjoyed the activity and it made them want to pay attention so that they could win. They all had so much fun that when it was time to go, they wanted to stay and "play" more games. That alone was the best feeling in the world. I made theory fun!