Frequently asked questions

Who Was This Written For?

Interviewer: Hello. Welcome to Time to Chime In, where we will learn about the Chime In music program. 

Chime In has recently developed Step Into Playing pre-reading books for the piano, violin and cello. You have mentioned that they were written for the specific people in mind. Would you like to share who they were?

My seven year old.

He loves music, but it is as easy to get him to practice his violin as it is to do his spelling words.

He tries to get through practicing as fast as he can, and doesn’t really like playing the same song twice.

It is easy to be intimidated by a page a music full of notes of different length values, and symbols you don’t understand.

To make Chime In’s books student friendly we created 10 animal characters to guide them through different the concepts of music—Rickman does rhythm, Trevor does tempo, and Troy focuses on note reading and so on. 

The thing to remember is that a student feels confident in their ability to play the song or exercise, and not make it too hard so they feel like they are progressing really fast.

Aha, after developing the books for students, who was the parent you had in mind? 

My sister—she wants ALL of her children to learn an instrument, not so they’ll all be professionals, but because she hopes that they’ll have a better life because they have music. 

 It is a big job to teach a child to play, and a lot of it falls upon the parent. 

 It makes a big job a lot harder when parents don’t have a musical background.

I would imagine. How did you write it for non-musicians?

We set out with the goal to “show, not tell” and we hope that it will not only help parents who don’t know music, but that it will help parents who don’t know English. 

Our secret hope is that parents can piggy-back off of what their children are learning so that they can play music too.

I would love to get better too. I am guessing the last person in mind was a teacher?

Our violin teacher. He knows his stuff. 

The first time he played for us, I had never heard anything so beautiful.

It is daunting to teach a brand new beginner. There are SO many different components of music that need to work together simultaneously to make a beautiful sound.

There is a popular method out there, but it has a few gaps, especially for those brand new to music.

So, the Chime In Step into Playing books were written to be used before starting Book One of other methods?

Yes! It would be a travesty not to use those books. 

We are not trying to replace all the good that comes from that method, we are only trying to make it easier for teachers to help more students be able to play those beautiful songs.  

Chime In’s Step Into Playing method books for the piano, cello, and violin were designed with real parents, teachers, and students in mind. 

 Give it a try and we hope you find it’s—bee-utiful!

Why Colored Notes?

The Step Into Playing books use colored notes. Would you explain why? 

Sure! 

Naturally the goal is to have students feel confident reading regular black notes, but the Step Into Playing books were written for pre-readers.

Pre-readers?

That means they are brand new to music, and aren’t reading notes yet.

This could be anyone of any age, but we’re typically looking at a student somewhere between five and ten years old.

With that age group in mind, we wanted to make music lessons as fun and engaging as possible, and to do that we use color. 

Was that to help with note reading? 

That was our main goal. We’ve found it helps, especially because we have pictures of colored keyboards and fingerboards that you can use as a reference to self-check and self-correct. 

It makes a world of difference to have a visual guide, not just for the students, but for the parents who are helping them out.

Another point is that more and more music lessons are being held online. Colored notes can be a tremendous help for a teacher when they are trying to teach on Zoom.

Don’t you even recommend using little prompts on the piano?

Yeah, one of the great struggles for beginning piano students is to keep their hands in the right position and to use the correct fingering. They move their hands all over the place and it is just a mess.

I like using the triangle eraser tops. They are cheap, easy to find, and easy to move around. 

Interesting. 

Beginner string teachers often will put tape on the fingerboard to help their students develop muscle memory, and this is the same idea, but for the piano.

The good thing is that erasers are more flexible, and then you don’t have to put tape on the piano keys.

Another advantage, is that the erasers are easy to take away. 

Usually I’ll remove an eraser every time a student plays through a song, so that they get used to playing without them. 

That’s creative! Are there any disadvantages to colored notes?

We get that some people may prefer not to use colored notes. 

We’ve packaged the colored notes in our books with so many other playful elements that are geared to young children that my eleven year old now thinks that he’s too old for them. And that’s okay.

However, colored notes help bring out patterns in music that would be difficult to see without them, and that can help musicians of any age.

Is there anything else?

Some teachers may be concerned that students may get so dependent on colored notes that they will not be able to transition to regular note reading. 

One way we addressed this worry was to put Black Note Challenge Songs throughout the third book so by the time the are finishing it, they are only playing black note songs.

And as a side note, we actually have more black note songs in our third Pre-Reading book, than a popular method’s has total songs, in their Book One. 

Plus, with colored notes students should be able to get through our books much faster, so they will get more practice sight reading in less time.

We hope that as students develop muscle memory and confidence, the Step Into Playing books will be just that—a helpful stepping-stone so that students are better readers and will have a good foundation of music theory. 

You mentioned theory, do colored notes help out with music theory too?

Absolutely! I see it helps in two ways—transposition and composition.

Transposition? That is a pretty difficult skill to master. Do you really use it in pre-reading books?

Yes, I find the earlier the better, so they can understand it and do it before they know to be afraid of it.

Transposition really isn’t as difficult as we sometimes make it out to be, and Chime In’s colored keyboards and fingerboards makes transposing a snap. 

Our dream is for students to fall in love with our Circle of Fifths, because it is such a valuable tool, especially in songwriting.

Songwriting—this is one of the parts of Chime In that I’m most excited about. Would you share a little bit more about it? 

We feel like it is just as important to be able to write a song, as it is for students to write their ABCs.

Can you imagine a kindergarten teacher trying to teach reading without doing any writing?

That’s a great point!

We believe that writing will help them become better readers, and reading will help them become better writers. 

That’s great! Is there anything else you’d like to say about colored notes?

Like I said before, we get that people may not care for colored notes, but we hope they understand that Chime In’s Step Into Playing books are there to help our students springboard into playing better music faster.

Colored notes help illustrate and convey understanding of abstract concepts—patterns, transposing, and the role of notes in music theory. 

Those are some of the scary parts of music, but with colored notes students learn them quickly and easily, and that builds confidence, so they’re more likely to keep going. 

And we want them to keep going!

Chime In is there to support children who need a little help. For example: 

• children who are younger 

• children who may struggle with learning 

• children with special needs

• children who don’t know English 

and children who may just appreciate the extra help and confidence that colored notes can bring.

It sounds like it’s not for just children but parents too.

Exactly! Chime In’s mission is to help families create, connect, and inspire. 

Why Songwriting?

Another exciting part of the Step Into Playing books are the songwriting exercises. This is amazing to me. I always thought that songwriting is something only rare gifted people are able to do, but Chime In is turning that idea on its head, and teaching songwriting from the start. 

I find it interesting that when you put a child in front of the piano for the very first time, is that they immediately start playing around on the keys and they want you to listen to their song.

They don’t know a single thing about music, but they love being able to create, and are confident you’ll love what they created too.  

I think that creativity is inherent in every person, and I’m a little envious of children who are so sweet and innocent that they haven’t yet fallen into the insecurity of caring what others think about what they create. They aren’t even aware of it.  

They do it because they love to make something new that is their very own. They don’t even need to keep or remember it. They love the process more than they care about the results. 

Wouldn’t that be nice?

I know. 

Chime In has tried to capture that innate yearning for creativity, but designed it to have it contained into an easy enough way so a teacher will be able to incorporate songwriting into their lessons. 

I am not familiar with other methods doing this. How does it work?

Chime In created a series of short songwriting exercises that are placed throughout the books, so that every time a student finishes a section, they will be able to write a short song that incorporates the skill they have just learned.  

It sounds exciting, but I have to admit, it also sounds a little complicated. 

 We realize that many teachers have never had any experience writing a song, and so it was important to us to make these exercises so simple that they will not be intimidated by the process, and hopefully the teachers will gain confidence that songwriting is something they can do too.

Okay, so if I were a teacher and brand new to songwriting, how would you suggest I go about teaching it?

I would pull out some colored pencils or markers or crayons, and only give the student the colors that match the exercise. 

Then I’d show the rhythm pattern, and explain the difference between the note lengths.  

The first exercises only use quarter and half notes, so I’d show them how to draw it in the box or on the staff, give them a time limit (say 5 or 10 minutes), and let them go.  

Some students will just write out a song without even caring about how it sounds.  

Other students will want to experiment on their instrument first.  

When that happens for the piano, I use the colored eraser prompts so it makes it easy to see which notes that they can choose from, or show them the fingers they can use on the fingerboard for the strings. 

That sounds fun, and quite manageable.

It is! My advice at first is to just keep it simple. Really simple. 

Later you can talk about using patterns, or add some musical phrasing hints like using the fifth to end the “question” part of a musical sentence, and the home note to “answer” it. 

But at first there doesn’t need to be a lot of rules, it doesn’t even need to sound good, just let your students go and create. 

This reminds me of giving a child a coloring book and some crayons. 

Exactly! And at first you don’t even need to worry about them coloring in the lines. Just let them create to their hearts content. 

Another way to make songwriting really easy is to pull out the bells. That way there is no other option than to use those few notes, and it makes it easier to focus and get down to business.  

I find that students love, love using the bells to write songs, and if they had their way they would do it the whole lesson long. They just can’t resist making some sounds on the bell. 

I can see how your students would love it! 

They do!  

You can’t imagine how much joy comes to our students and their parents when they’ve written their own song.  

I find that songwriting can motivate a student to spend hours and hours at the keyboard, which they would never do just practicing their lessons.  

We want them to love playing and to be excited about the ways they can use their instrument to create, connect, and inspire. It is such a great outlet. 

We want them to spend as much time with their instrument as possible, and that time counts as double if they are doing it because they want to do it, not because someone is forcing them.  

Of course, not every student will love songwriting. 

Hmmm?

One of my sons hates holding a pencil, which means he hates writing in general, and it will be a lot harder for him to even give songwriting a chance.  

If that is the case, my feeling is to be kind, and write it out for them. It is worth it for them to get comfortable with the creative process. 

Going back to what you said, it’s the process that counts. 

Exactly. I find that songwriting is so helpful and so important to being a well-rounded musician, that it is essential we add this component to our lessons.  

Like I’ve said before, you would never expect a kindergarten teacher to teach reading without teaching writing. 

Students learn so much from writing their ABCs. In doing so they are much more likely to identify letters on a page than they would by just looking at them. 

It is the same way with notes. Drawing out a half note is a good way to help them see that it really is different than a quarter note, and it can be a way to help them learn to hold it out correctly while they are sight-reading. 

Writing helps reading, and reading helps writing. 

Start small. Think like a kindergarten teacher. They are more interested in getting students excited about writing than they are quick to pull out a red pencil.  

So, kindergarten teachers let a backwards “b” or “d” slide, knowing that it is more important to build confidence than it is to stop and correct a child while they are trying to express something creatively. 

Yeah, sometimes it is hard for a grown up not to swoop in and fix everything, but sometimes we focus on the wrong things. 

And little details are the easiest thing to fix, but often the least important parts of the process. 

I got this example from blogger Seth Godin—imagine a school assignment that says to use your most creative, vivid writing, and to have all the words on the left side line up neatly against the vertical red line on the paper. 

Which instruction is going to be easiest to follow?  

A teacher is going to find that almost all the students managed to follow the part of lining up the words up next to the red line, but few of them will have used vivid writing. 

Okay... 

But vivid is the important part! That is the part which makes you want to read it in the first place. Vivid writing helps you remember it.  

It is much harder to stretch yourself creatively than it is to follow a format. Formulas are helpful and formatting is important, but being able to experiment, being able to vulnerable, being able to create something new that hasn’t ever existed before is what we hope our students will be able to take away from the process.  

So with these songwriting exercises Chime In is seeking to build better thinking students? 

We want to prepare this next generation of music students to write the best music of the century. We need to prepare leaders. We need to use every good tool we can to help more people make our world a better place. We need music to create, connect, and inspire.

about us

Hi! We're Lauren and Megan. Two friends since elementary school who love to have fun! And laugh. We're really good at laughing. One day Lauren said to Megan - I have an idea! Let’s get people learning and playing music with bells and other instruments. They both agreed and Chime In Bells was created.

Lauren is a mother to five awesome kids (4 boys and 1 girl!). Her superpowers include making gourmet meals from anything found in her pantry and being well-versed in community issues. She loves bringing people together with music.

Megan is a designer (landscape, floral, and graphic) and mom to four rad little boys. Her superpowers include making everything beautiful, and the ability to craft a well-thought out pun at the drop of a hat during regular conversation.

We are happy to meet you!