How to Compose Music 101 - A Free Course - Best Online Short Courses

Learn how to compose music, from start to finish.

In this course, you’ll learn about melody, harmony, form, accompaniment, dynamics, articulations and how to make your music generally sound good.

Study the ways in which Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven all made their music work.

Lesson 1 – How to Write a Melody – Learn about how to write a Basic Idea, the real building block of classical music. The easiest way you’ve ever seen, to write a convincing melody.

Lesson 2 – Harmony 101 – Learn about harmony, and how to make the basic idea you wrote in lesson 1, fit to different harmonies.

Lesson 3 – The Musical Period – Learn about the musical period, the first of the small theme types that classical composers use in their music.

Lesson 4 – The Musical Sentence – Learn about the musical sentence, the second of the small theme types that classical composers use in their music.

Lesson 5 – Functional Harmony – Start to get in depth with your knowledge of harmony. Find out what you’ve been missing that will make writing chord progressions easier than ever.

Lesson 6 – Harmonic Progressions and Chromaticism – Learn even more about how to use harmony to get the effects you want in your music. Learn about the different types of chord progressions, sequences and how to easily use chromatic harmony.

Lesson 7 – Your First Complete Piece – Learn about small ternary form, and how all the previous lessons fit together to create a complete piece of music.

Lesson 8 – The Details – Learn how to use your accompaniment, articulations and dynamics to create a great sounding, convincing piece of classical music.