We begin our journey by laying the groundwork—both at the piano and as composers. In this chapter, you’ll establish a healthy, comfortable playing posture and learn the essential techniques that prevent injury and give you freedom at the keyboard. We’ll cover fundamental exercises to build coordination, finger strength, and control, while introducing scales, chords, and progressions in a way that connects directly to your creative process.

At the same time, we’ll dive into the building blocks of composition: motifs, chord functions, and phrasing. You’ll not only practice the technical side of piano playing but also immediately apply it to writing—starting with your very first chord progression. This will be the seed of a piece we’ll continue to develop and expand throughout the course.

Chapter 1 is about creating a strong foundation: technique, theory, and creativity all working together to set you on a path toward more expressive and powerful music.

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In this chapter, we expand both our technique and our creative voice. You’ll learn new voicing styles—closed, open, and combined—that bring color and variety to your playing. We’ll also develop stronger control with scale work and octave exercises.

On the compositional side, we dive into melody writing, voice leading, and cadences—core concepts that shape how music flows and feels. You’ll practice crafting balanced phrases, explore how melodies and chords interact, and apply everything step by step as we continue building our piece with and richer harmonies.

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In this chapter, we move beyond the basics and dive into the colorful world of modes, harmonic expansion, and advanced compositional tools. You’ll discover how to use modal writing, modal interchange, and chromatic techniques to give your music fresh colors and unexpected turns. We’ll also explore non-functional harmony, pedal tones, mediants, and planing—powerful devices that can instantly transform the atmosphere of your piece.

Alongside these harmonic tools, we’ll continue improving piano technique—learning how to combine chords and melodies in one hand for a fuller sound. On the compositional side, you’ll expand your sketches both harmonically and melodically, explore the importance of contrast, and write a second, contrasting theme to enrich your piece.

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In the final chapter, we bring everything together and focus on how to shape a complete, polished piece. You’ll learn essential techniques for development—altering motifs, creating accompaniment patterns, and using the “family tree” method to expand your thematic material. We’ll also cover how to craft effective intros and outros, making sure your music starts and ends with impact.

On the technical side, you’ll practice multi-octave scales and arpeggios, and explore expressive devices like transitions, ramps, and flourishes. Finally, we’ll take all the skills you’ve built and apply them to finishing your composition—giving it structure, momentum, and a strong sense of closure.

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As a special bonus for film music fans and composers, everything comes together in this chapter as we create a fully developed film suite from the ground up. Starting with simple motifs, we’ll build memorable hero and villain themes, learn to harmonize and vary them, and expand our sketches into rich, multi-staff arrangements. Along the way, you’ll develop your own accompaniment patterns, practice expanding themes across registers, and explore how variation and contrast give a piece dramatic shape. By the end of this chapter, you’ll have written your own complete suite—bringing together everything learned in the course. As a bonus, we’ll also explore playing Chopin and working on expressive melody playing to deepen your artistry at the piano.