In this first lesson, we will begin working with diatonic chords in a chosen key and learning how to borrow non-diatonic chords to create evocative harmonies for your songs. We will look at several popular chord progressions and begin experimenting with choosing the perfect chords to help you tell your lyrical story.

In this lesson we will expand our knowledge of harmony to include 7th chords and added tensions. We will use these new chords to create more interesting harmonies for our lyrics and melodies. We will also practice changing the harmonic rhythm in our songs to better support our melodies and lyrics. Finally, we will use harmonic rhythm to show contrast between our song sections.

In this lesson we will begin to create better melodies for our lyrics. We will start by learning about different types and shapes of melodic lines. We will then practice creating melodic hooks and using stable and unstable tones in our melodies. We will also learn the importance of using melodic contrast between song sections.

In this final lesson, we will begin to put everything together to help our lyrics tell their story. We will discover how to highlight our melodies by using chord tones and non-chord tones from our harmonies. We will also focus on setting our lyrics to the melody and harmony in a way that highlights the meaning we want to convey to the audience. Finally, we will practice creating melodies in minor keys.