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Composer Harmonic Practice The Fully Diminished Seventh Exercises
Composer Harmonic Practice - The Fully Diminished Seventh Exercises
  Here is an exercise you can do with a fully diminished seventh chord. This is an extremely handy exercise to do with "any" chord to increase your composing harmonic... Read more...
Chromatic Rag
Chromatic Reharmonization Lesson - Rag
A lesson on using Chromatic Harmony to re-harmonize a well known melody.   Read more...
Limitation Harmony Exercise
Limitation Exercise - Harmonize Single Tones
This limitation exercise will help you in many ways. First, you are challenging yourself with a limitation rule-set to create some kind of chord sequence that makes musical sense.  This... Read more...
Piano Timing Lesson
Basic Musical Timing Development & Free Borrowing Progression
You can memorize every jazz substitution and modal interchange trick in the book. But without solid timing development, those chords won't gel. Here's what most composers miss: timing isn't just... Read more...
BackDoor ii V Lesson
Backdoor ii V Progression Demystified
This lesson demystifies the "backdoor ii-V," a move often cloaked in confusing terminology. Essentially, the backdoor ii-V is a chord progression that borrows from the parallel minor key. Check out the... Read more...
Achieve A Cinematic Enchanting Sound With Mixolydian
Achieve A Cinematic Enchanting Sound With Mixolydian
This video lesson reveals a basic, simple move you can use with Mixolydian to get a very enchanting sound for the film score genre, specifically by alternating between the Mixolydian I... Read more...
Opposite Motion Chromatic Harmony Trick
Opposite Motion Chromatic Harmony Trick
  In this video lesson Robert shows a cool little trick that you can use within your sequences.   Reversing the roles of the outside voices (top line and bottom line)... Read more...
advanced pivot chord modulation
Breaking Free Like Wagner: Advanced Pivot Chord Techniques
This video explores Wagner's masterful use of pivot chord sequential techniques, demonstrating how to create compelling harmonic progressions that move clockwise through the circle of fifths using  vi-ii-V-I patterns starting... Read more...
Creating Tension with Diminished Scales
Creating Tension with Diminished Scales: A Chord Run Trick
Key Video Lesson Take Away:  This little trick with symmetrical scales, especially the diminished scale lets you create these really cool opposite motion chord runs where the outside lines come... Read more...
Bonus Free Melodic Minor Lesson
Bonus Free Melodic Minor Lesson
Here is a free bonus lesson from our new Melodic Minor Course (Practical Melodic Minor):  KEY LESSON POINT:  The traditional directional rules of melodic minor (ascending with raised 6th/7th, descending... Read more...
music syntax connect the dots
Common Chord & Chromatic Harmony Chains: Building Musical Sentences
Learn how basic harmonic exercises transform into powerful modulating sequences by treating chord progressions as "words" you can combine. KEY LESSON POINT: Mastering small harmonic movements as reusable "words" allows... Read more...
waltz of the flowers
Musical Building Blocks: Transform Common Progressions Into Original Music
Is It "Stealing" to Use Other Composers' Progressions? This lesson explores the common practice of reusing harmonic progressions through examples from Tchaikovsky, Alfred Newman, James Newton Howard, and others. Through... Read more...