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Take The Next Step
Master advanced harmony, modulation, and ear training to bring your musical ideas to life
Finally Write Longer Music
Compose confidently with a flexible sonata-based framework for music of any length
Learn Faster, Compose Smarter
Accelerate your growth through hands-on lessons, real-world demos, and exercises that turn theory into action
Pillars of Composition 2 | Music Composition Online Course
Pillars of Composition 2 is here—your key to overcoming the “what now?” hurdle in music creation. Whether you’ve struggled to extend those first bursts of inspiration beyond a minute or two, or you’re simply unsure how to bring fresh life to your ideas, this course offers a clear, practical framework using the sonata form.
Forget any stuffy, academic connotations—this isn’t a “Classical Music” class. You’ll learn how to balance contrasting themes, craft smooth transitions between ideas, and develop your material in ways that stay engaging and coherent. Want to write 3-minute pieces or expand your work to 45 minutes? You’ll finally have a solid blueprint to make it happen.
Beyond form, we dive into harmony essentials like reharmonization, pivot chord and borrowed chord modulation, and the effective use of transition keys. Plus, for the first time in the Pillars of Composition series, there’s a full unit on ear training. Master diatonic, chromatic, and rhythmic solfege so you can quickly translate the melodies in your head onto the page. This course is packed with lessons, demos, and homework exercises designed to embed these skills in your own writing.
Pillars of Composition 1 helped hundreds of composers level up their craft—now, Pillars 2 will guide you to the next chapter in your composition journey.
Ryan Leach
As an 8 year old growing up in South Australia, Ryan started studying guitar so that he could play Beatles songs, which marked the beginning of a lifelong passion for music. Now an award winning composer for Film and TV, his music has been heard on every major network with clients including Disney, The California Lottery, MTV, Lowe’s, Rainn Wilson's SoulPancake, and the Netflix Original film Candy Jar. Before branching out as a freelance composer, Ryan earned a degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music and worked as assistant to veteran composer Michael Levine at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions.
Check out the Trailer
Pillars of Composition II is a course devoted to making us write a piece in Sonata form. It is in depth and modern. Ryan breaks down the form into smaller pieces so that we learn it. There is a discord forum devoted to Pillars of Composition II. In the discord forum we can post our works to get feedback. This is awesome because assessment is a key component to learning. I highly recommend this course to anyone that wants to write larger works. It's wonderful. If you like Ryan's YouTube channel, you'll love this course: Pillars of Composition II.
Gregory M.
The Next Step In Your Composing Journey
The course follows a spiral approach, with each turn of the spiral Ryan expands on the previous lessons:
This course is divided by the following steps:
Module 1
This first module sets the stage for the more complex topics coming later.
We’ll start with a broad overview of the Sonata form, introducing you to the three main sections of the form and how they are structured to form a cohesive whole.
The first module also gets into harmonic techniques like 7th chords, extensions, and chord scales, begins our introduction to ear training with the major scale, and caps off with an overview of the 5 Step Composing Process.
- Sonata Form
- Extensions
- Chord Scales
- Diatonic Ear Training
- Composing Process
Module 2
In this section of the course we are going to go deep into the Exposition, the first of the three main sections of the Sonata form. We’ll break down the different parts, A themes, transitions, and B themes, and spend focused time on each.
We’re also going to get into the basics of modulation, and how to change keys in a convincing way.
For ear training we’ll get into the chromatic intervals, which means you’ll be able to hear things in minor keys as well as more adventurous melodies and harmonies.
And for the wildcard topic we’re going to discuss how to get a full sound, both at the arrangement and orchestration level, but also with production.
- Transitions
- Modulation
- The Exposition
- Chromatic Solfege
- Achieving a Full Sound
Module 3
In this module we get into the middle section of the sonata form: the development. We’ll talk about developing and varying your ideas, and also cover a way that you can structure your developments that makes them way easier to write than you might think.
In the realm of harmony we’ll go into reharmonization, or taking existing chord choices and changing them for variety, color, surprise, or whatever other reasons you might have to spice things up.
Our ear training unit will cover harmony, or hearing chords. And finally our grab bag topic will be about how to choose instruments!
- The Development
- Variation
- Reharmonization
- Harmonic Ear Training
- Choosing Instruments
Module 4
To start Module 4, we’ll be reaching the end of our sonata form with the Recapitulation. We’ll also be looking at how to modulate to more remote keys, especially what to do when there is no common pivot chord.
For ear training our focus will shift to rhythm, which is just as important as pitch, and you’ll be introduced to the topic of Rhythmic Solfege.
And finally Ryan shares his ideas on how to evaluate your own work and be a helpful critic to yourself.
- The Recapitulation
- Retransitions and Codas
- Advanced Modulation
- Rhythmic Solfege
- Giving Yourself Feedback
Course Curriculum
Walkthroughs
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