How to play chords in a relaxed way?

[mila5405]

I have one specific question about learning 8-9 yo to play chords.
Many of my student find it amusing to sing and comping themselves!
Some of them have difficulty in pressing down the chord without striking other keys.
Does anyone have some good preparatory exercises that works!

Grateful for any answers!
/mike

[lostinidlewonder]

Get them to play the outside notes of the chord, i.e the highest and lowest note. Then gradually add the middle note(s). Question them why it is easier to play the outsides alone, then perhaps play the top note with the middle, then the bottom note with the middle, ask them why this also feels easy. Then play all together ask them what is most challenging. You will also notice the problems for the individual as it occur as you go through these routines. Many young beginners have to break the habit of wanting to press individual notes with the fingers, when they play chords they are forced to cause the hand to play as a whole, get them to practice to effectively drop their hands into chords and use the weight of the hand to play not the individual fingers.

[samasap]

Get them to play maybe ONE CHORD.....Say C Major as an easy example, and get them to push into the notes..Also make sure they are using the correct fingering. For MAJOR CHORDS, if you use 1, 3 & 5...In your RIGHT hand, and 5, 3 & 1 in your LEFT HAND. Having the correct fingering is a must for chords, as this will help with their technique. If they have tiny hands, then maybe suggest to start with that they hold their 2nd and 4th fingers out of the way, just to get use to THREE fingers going down at the same time!!!! 
Get them to do this say 10 times, then get them to move up to another chord, lets say F, and now get them to do a quaver rhythm....Also if you play the chords with them, this will help as they will be able to hear how it it suppose to sound. 

[drorperl]

Hi Mike,

what i do, is teach them first C major chord and let them try with each hand by itself, then showing them the F  & G and explaining the similarity in the shape (the symmetry), next (which can be right away or the following week depends on your student) i'm explaining the differences between major and minor (let them count the half steps....major would be 4 and 3—in a C chord from C to E you have 4 and from E to G you have 3...and minor would be 3 and 4 of course) now you can make it into a game to see how quick they can find random major & minor chords. Everyone love games. The next phase would be to make it more systematic... meaning let them practice a few chords, for example: all the major chords that starts on white keys C D E F G A B and the following week the ones on the black keys C# D# F# G# Bb, let them practice them going up (and down) in half steps C C# D etc' or in whole steps....be creative, the more the better, once they get familiar with the majors continue to the minors and so on.  One thing that I think is great is to write simple chord progressions (that fits their current level) and ask them to play first just with the right hand, then to add a bass note in the left hand, and to play the progression with a sustain pedal, it sounds fun and they get to work on pedal on the same time, if that goes well you can add patterns to the right hand ...and the so on.
I think the most the important thing is to  be creative with this, keep changing, and looking, and try to be sensitive to your students abilities and interests, work with them together.

good luck
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dror Perl. Pianist, Composer, teacher, author of the coming soon COLOR piano books series(Jazz & Blues & contemporary for students) www.SheerPiano.com, www.myspace.com/120674416, look me up on facebook