ABSTRACT
This lesson plan presents accidentals and enharmonic pitches in a musically meaningful way. Examples are drawn primarily from the first movement of Beethoven’s “Waldstein” sonata, and secondarily from Chopin’s Nocturne in D♭ major, Op. 27, No. 2, which together provide just about every type of accidental usage one would ever encounter or wish to teach their students.
These examples are then used to preview more advanced topics such as leading tones, triad spelling, embellishing tones, borrowed chords, Neapolitan sixth chords, and augmented sixth chords. Suggestions for further in-class work or assignments are also provided.
