FCGDAEB

There are enough acronyms in music to make your head twirl!  All Cows Eat Grass for space notes in the Bass Clef... and then Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge for line notes in the Treble Clef... the list goes on.  Another common one that students have to learn in piano is Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle... When you're introduced to scales and accidentals (sharps, flats and natural signs) you'll need to start getting to know: FCGDAEB (the exciting order of sharps on the Grand Staff).  And then, the order of flats (BEADGCF) which is backwards... Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father.

In my latest rudiments class at a Montessori I work at we began to explore the concept of Major Scales (and later on the Circle of Fifths) and how a pattern of notes is built on tones and semitones.  This course is where I needed to teach RCM material - and a really popular and efficient textbook is Mark Sarnecki's current 2nd edition of "The Complete Elementary Music Rudiments" for Basic, Intermediate & Advanced.  It's quite a handy book!  And it also comes with an answer book that corresponds nicely. 

Both of my students in this course practically started from scratch (neither of them have had much beginner-level theory experience prior to this so I really had to break down everything into smaller chunks before heading into another new concept).  We literally practiced drawing the order of sharps and flats over and over again until each symbol was written on a line or space accurately... I'm so proud of them!  I loved how they got so interested in the content when I asked them at the beginning of the chapter if anyone remembers their Major scales starting with the most basic and common ones (C, G, F...).  In the teaching room where our long conference-style table is located there is no piano unforunately so I usually bring my own "piano keyboard" paper cutout (and make photo copies for them) to use as a visual.

So when we eventually got to FCGDAEB they thought the whole Father Charles thing was odd lol and it didn't really make sense to them... "Who is father charles?" and "why do we need to use the word battle?" were some of the questions I got.  So since it didn't quite mesh well with them we decided to make up our own classroom-version.  After some thought we all agreed on one:  Farrah and Chloe Go Down And Eat Burritos (haha).  You see, those are my students' names & burritos were way more appealing.  So we made sure to write the rhyme down & they'll remember it forever.

On a side note it is so incredibly crucial for students to gain a more well-rounded experience in music right from point zero.  It'll make learning complex concepts much more easier and quicker when they're older so that they're already familiar with the basics!  Then, all it takes is "building" on a foundation.