Tonal Harmony Mastery
Create drive and drama in your composition
Compose your music with a large vocabulary of chords. Create awesome drives in your music, leading your audience to the climax of your musical work like it was the most satisfying moment of their lives.
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Become a master of harmony by understanding all its basics, but also the general principles that led to the establishment of the different theoretical rules.
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Acquire the harmonic knowledge and reflexes :
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- to allow you to find the exact harmonic progression you are looking for;
- to lead you to fast, efficient and varied ways to harmonize your music.
What is awesome about mastering harmony is that not only will you be able to create drive to your music and have an extended harmonic vocabulary, but you will also be able to enhance the drama of your music.
How does it work?
What will you learn in Tonal Harmony Mastery?
This course includes about 17 sessions discussing different topics of harmony. For each sessions, you will have assignments to practice.
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- Scales, intervals, chords, inversions
- Voice leading
- Figured bass
Session 1: Basics of music theory
- Major and minor modes
- Mixed mode
- Tonal structure
Session 2: Basics of tonal structure
- Nonharmonic tones
- Six-Four Chord
- Dominant seventh chords
Session 3: Harmonic vocabulary 1
-Diminished fifth
- Points of closure
- Harmonic drive
- Harmonic rhythm
Session 4: Harmonic direction
- Harmonization of a bass
- Different harmonic sequences
- Harmonic sequence in the language
- Voice leading in harmonic sequences
Session 5: Sequences
- Secondary dominant
- Neapolitan sixth
- Augmented fifth
Session 6: Harmonic vocabulary 2
- Augmented sixth
- Composing a good bass
- Relation between the bass and the soprano
- How to harmonize a melody
Session 7: Harmonization of a melody
- How to create expectations
- How to create tension
- How to create surprise
Session 8: Expectations
- Non dominant seventh
- Dominant ninth
- Diminished seventh
Session 9: Harmonic vocabulary 3
- Non dominant ninth
- Eleventh and tirteenth
- How to manage harmony in different textures
Session 10: Textures
- How to modulate to close tonalities
- Pivot chords
- Modulation by steps
Session 11: Modulations 1
- How harmony influences the perception of emotions in music
Session 12: Harmony and emotions
- Juxtaposition
- Pivot tone
- How to modulate to distant tonalities
Session 13: Modulations 2
- Enharmony
- Modulating sequences
- Different usual modes
- Modes colour
- Cadences and direction
Session 14 - 15: Basics of modal harmony
-Voice leading
- Choices of chords
- Theoretical basics
- Voice leading
- Chords colour and affects
Session 16-17: Basics of chromatic mediant chords
- How to use chromatic mediant chords in a musical context
Live sessions
Every week, a live session will be scheduled.
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Once every two weeks, will be an actual course, the other week will be a free session where we gather to answer questions or to discuss harmony or other musical disciplines.
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It will allow us to get to know each other and makes the experience more alive even though it is an online course.
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All courses will be recorded and you will be able to watch them later, should you be unable to attend the session.
Constant support
To ensure a high quality support between sessions, you will be invited to join a Private Facebook group made of motivated composers engaged in deepening their understanding of music.
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You can use it to
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- Discuss with other composers like you, facing the same situation, struggles etc.
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- Ask advices to other composers on any topics;
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- Ask questions on any topics related to music, production or career management;
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- Ask feedback on your music;
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- Create long lasting relationship with other awesome composers like you.
What distinguishes us from competiton?
Compared to competition, I offer an in depth course in harmony covering much more than mere rules of harmony, but a complete and in depth understanding of harmony, backed by acoustic and psychological principles, allowing for an understanding of the roots of harmonic rules that you can later apply to other musical disciplines and musical styles. Additionally, I will also teach expectations in music and the influence of harmony on the perception of emotions in music, which is never taught, as it is relatively new to the theoretical approaches.
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I acquired these knowledge and skills through 15 years of experience in composition and teaching as well as with my doctoral research. Thus, I will be able to provide a deep understanding of music with a very pedagogical approach. Furthermore, I will be available on a Facebook group to answer any question or only to discuss music with you and your classmates.
Your teacher
My name is Olivier Gagnon I am a Canadian composer who accomplished a Doctorate in Musical Arts at the Université de Montréal. I explored and mastered many harmonic systems from tonal harmony, modal harmony and chromatic mediant chords to more modern harmonic systems. My music was awarded many times in different competitions, including the Concorso internazionale di composizione "Romualdo Marenco", the Prix collégien de musique contemporaine, the International Antonín DvoÅ™ák Composition Competition and the International Composition Competition Harelbeke.
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I also taught music analysis, as well as harmony at the Université du Québec à Montréal. My students shared that my courses were challenging but allowed them to learn a lot about harmony and music
Here are some samples of my music that is often depicted as colorful, detailed and varied.
My teaching is based on theory, but also by my professional experience as a composer and by my researches on Music Perception, which gives me a lot of tools to explain why the theories are designed this way. I also talk a lot about how to generate expectation and drama in your music.
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What people think of my music and my teaching?
Join now and you will...
1 - Become a master of tonal harmony
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2 - Raise your compositional level with more chords vocabulary as well as creating awesome drives to your compositions
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3 - Understand much more than just harmony, but also learn psychological and acoustics principles useful to more aspects of music composition than just harmony
Ready to enroll?
Let's go!
30 DAYS MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
If you are not fully satisfied by my services, get in touch with me in 30 days after the beginning of the sessions and I will fully refund you, minus transfer fees or exchange rates fees.
Some questions you may have
How long is the course ?
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The course will last about 9 months at the pace of one course every two weeks. Should you need more time to do it, the courses will be recorded and you can watch them when you are ready.
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Can I get behind ?
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You can’t really get behind as the courses will be recorded. They will be available for at least 3 years and you can take as much time as you need to complete the assignments for at least 3 years.
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How long do I have access to the material ?
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The recordings and the reviews of the assignments will be available for at least 3 years. They may be available for a longer time, but I can’t guarantee it yet.
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I am very busy, will I have the time?
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As the sessions will be recorded and that you will have at least 3 years to complete the whole course, you can adapt your pace to the time available to you.
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I can not read music, will I be able to understand the course?
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Yes you can, but that may be a bigger challenge. I adapted the course to allow people who can not read music to be able to take the course and learn something.
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First, there are some theoretical principles we will discuss that can be understood without a score. These are theoretical, syntaxic, psychological or acoustics principles.
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Second, I will use Dorico to teach the more practical part of the course. On your screen, you will see a score, as well as the name of the chords above it. Additionally, there will be a piano roll below the staff, like in a DAW, allowing you to identify the precise pitch of each voice on a piano instead of a staff. Take a look at the video below, it’s going to show how it will look like.
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I don’t know anything about harmony or music theory, will the course be too advanced?
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Yes you can. The course will start from the beginning, defining scales, intervals, chords, and some basics of music theory. But, these principles will be discussed pretty fast. You may want to take a look at this website before you start : https://www.musictheory.net/lessons
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I already know harmony quite well, will I still learn something useful?
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Yes you may learn something from this course even though you already know about harmony. We will not only discuss basic harmony, we will also discuss expectations, music and emotions, the psychological effects of harmony, the acoustics principles that led to harmonic rules. All these topics will be very useful to you as this knowledge can be adapted to other musical disciplines, to other musical styles and to everyday life.
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Do you have a Refund policy?
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Yes we have a refund policy. Should you be disappointed and want a refund, you can do it by contacting us within 30 days after the paiement or the beginning of the course (whichever is the latest). If you contact me within that time and that you have not watched more than 3 courses, I will get you a full refund minus bank and transfer fees. But, in order to have access to this refund, you must also have shown a commitment to the course by having made assignments. In this course, you can not get all the knowledge and skills you are looking for if you do not practice. Thus, the assignments are very important in your quest for harmony mastery.
Ready to enroll?
Let's go!
30 DAYS MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
If you are not fully satisfied by my services, get in touch with me in 30 days after the beginning of the sessions and I will fully refund you, minus transfer fees or exchange rates fees.