Harmony for Songwriters
A course by Adrián Suchowolski , Composer, Music Producer
Harmony for songwriters, exploring diatonic chords, modes, functional harmony, secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, modal interchange
Learn harmony in a hands‑on way and give your songs a wider range of colors. In this online course, Adrian Suchowolski walks you through functional and modal harmony on piano and guitar, showing how these ideas actually feel when you're writing music.
You start with the basics songwriters really use: the major scale, diatonic chords, triads, sevenths, inversions, voicings, and the usual extensions and suspensions. From there, you get a clear sense of how tension and release work through tonic, subdominant, and dominant roles, and how those shifts give a song its emotional pull.
Then you jump into modes, minor keys, and the practical differences between modal writing and functional harmony. It becomes easier to decide when you want a firm tonal center and when it's better to hover on a pedal note or a simple vamp. Later, you try out tools like secondary dominants, tritone swaps, modal mixture, and diminished chords—useful tricks for smooth key changes or little harmonic surprises that still make musical sense.
Everything is shown on real instruments, always with songwriting in mind, whether you're working in pop, rock, folk, jazz, film music, or anything else. A downloadable PDF gathers all the theory and charts so you can keep experimenting with your own songs.
What will you learn in this online course?
4 lessons & 3 downloads
- 100% positive reviews (1)
- 153 students
- 4 lessons (2h 1m)
- 3 additional resources (1 files)
- Online and at your own pace
- Available on the app
- Audio: English
- Spanish · English · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch · Turkish · Romanian · Indonesian
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
Recommended software & tools for this course
Logic Pro XWho is this online course for?
Songwriters and composers who want hands‑on harmony tools, producers curious about deeper chord colors, and musicians of any style who can already play a bit of piano or guitar and want their progressions to move, build tension, and land cleanly—without getting buried in theory.
Requirements and materials
You don’t need heavy music theory. If you can play a few basic chords on piano or guitar, count to seven, remember simple times tables, and you have an instrument plus a way to watch the videos and open the PDF, you’re set.
Reviews
Adrián Suchowolski
A course by Adrián Suchowolski
Under the nickname Suko Pyramid, Adrián Suchowolski has been sharing his music online since he was barely ten years old. He is a prolific composer, singer-songwriter, and producer. And if that weren’t enough, he also illustrates, directs, and animates cover art and music videos for himself and others.
Although Adrián was born in Madrid, his influences are wide-ranging, from Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney to Ryuichi Sakamoto, Schubert, and Mahler. Everything he enjoys listening to finds its way into his creative process.
Suko has performed extensively in Madrid’s indie rock scene, appearing at venues such as Sala Villanos, Sala Clamores, Moby Dick, and Sala Moe. His music, however, has taken him far beyond his hometown. He occasionally collaborates with artists in Los Angeles and Minneapolis and has toured the United States alongside his friend, the acclaimed saxophonist Nelson Devereaux.
Content
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Harmony for Songwriters
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Introduction
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Functional Harmony Basics
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Modes and minor tonality
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Advanced Functional Harmony
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Final project
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What to expect from a Domestika course
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FAQs
Domestika courses are online classes that allow you to learn new skills and create incredible projects. All our courses include the opportunity to share your work with other students and/or teachers, creating an active learning community. We offer different formats:
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The deep dive courses are divided into different modules. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with other students, as well as share your work and your final project, creating a community around the deep dive courses.
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Logic Pro X
Hola Adrián, gracias por el curso ya que es un era lo que necesitaba para crear melodías y adentrarme más en el solfeo de una manera práctica . Felicidades