27 July 2010

As a music theory teacher, the concept of “cycle of keys” is foundational in teaching, as it not only provides an understanding of keys, and key signatures, but also of compositional tools in terms of chord progressions.
The “Key-Cycle-Clock” device and book by Cindy Jane Hill-Rennie is extremely useful as an aid to this. By being such a ‘hands-on’ tool, I find that students get involved with the whole concept much more readily, rather than just by presenting it on paper.

Where the “Key–Cycle-Clock” really scores for me, though, is the clever way scale notes and chords can be easily observed by the Roman Numeral Dial. For a number of first year students, Music Theory, and thus scales, keys, and just REMEMBERING them can seem quite daunting and confusing! The device instantly shows them how many sharps or flats belong to the various keys, as well as exactly WHAT those notes are. By spending time with this device in a number of classes, covering these topics, as well as chords and progressions, I find students start to recall these theory fundamentals much easier, even without the device. I guess they start to see how these things all fit together, but the physical interaction with the “clock” embeds the concepts much more firmly in their understanding.

I would highly recommend this “Key-Cycle-Clock” to all music training institutions from primary through tertiary as the way in which it is presented is understandable and relevant to all age groups. Cindy includes a number of possible applications in the book, which I find are excellent starting points for group activities or challenges, such as working out how to find the notes of a particular chord using the device.

We have a number of copies in our library at MAINZ and we find students from various programmes (not just music!) making use of them.

Alan Brown
Programme Coordinator
Diploma In Contemporary Music Performance
Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand