Danger Notes is a series that began as a way to help students understand key signatures. The term “Danger Notes” means the notes that are most commonly missed by students based upon what they learned early on in their method books. Music, especially key signatures, creates many questions for students especially those with transposing instruments. Although there are many reasons why we have transposing instruments the answer students more frequently understand is that their notes were shifted to make it easier to read on the staff. A common student question might be “Why do I play B natural when you are calling this a Bb Scale?” Danger notes can help with this.
Danger Notes begins with the four common band keys of Bb, Eb, Ab, and F. Except in the advanced version of the series you will see Danger Notes makes with an arrow. The Danger notes for the common band keys are:
Scale | Scale Degrees | ||
Bb Major | 7 | ||
Eb Major | 4 | ||
Ab Major | 1 | 4 | 8 |
F Major | 3 | 7 | |
Since I began writing the series, Danger Notes has expanded into more advanced technical methods covering Grades 6-12.
Where to Start?
Although the Danger Note series can be started anywhere, the easiest place to start is with the Key Relations Fingering Chart. You will notice that many of the different methods use printed fingerings. It would be easy to question, “Well, isn’t that just a crutch, or a way to cheat?” In my experience, the students that will inherently “get it” still will, but the idea of fingerings will help students, especially visual students to see the differences.
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