This is a pretty fundamental, but necessary drudgery: Actual transcribed chords in every inversion and every extension. This extended exercise will burn chord memory into a musician's mind for a long time. A lot of folks (teachers/academics) swear that learning by rote doesn't work, but it does. slaving over a staff with a pencil burns in sight memory and reinforces recognition and interpretation of chord symbols.
One of the shortcomings that I see of various online tutorials is that the observer is SHOWN things, but little is expected of the learner. Okay. So you've shown a learner how a dom7 chord is constructed. But can he construct one in every key and in every inversion? Forty-plus years ago Berklee had a fabulous correspondence course that posed several problems to the musician in every lesson. One of the first lessons was to write every known chord in every key and in every inversion. That was one emeffer of an assignment, but it was necessary.
Just showing someone how it's done doesn't accomplish much for the learner unless he invests some of his own time and effort into the lesson. You should expect feedback from the student. SERIOUS feedback.
One of the shortcomings that I see of various online tutorials is that the observer is SHOWN things, but little is expected of the learner. Okay. So you've shown a learner how a dom7 chord is constructed. But can he construct one in every key and in every inversion? Forty-plus years ago Berklee had a fabulous correspondence course that posed several problems to the musician in every lesson. One of the first lessons was to write every known chord in every key and in every inversion. That was one emeffer of an assignment, but it was necessary.
Just showing someone how it's done doesn't accomplish much for the learner unless he invests some of his own time and effort into the lesson. You should expect feedback from the student. SERIOUS feedback.
