Write a song using music theory

Course details:

Do you want new tricks to help you write songs? Have you ever listened to a song that burned a hole in your ear and wondered why? This class is for you.

In this class, we teach the fundamentals of music theory that empower you distill the techniques from your favorite artists into concepts that you can use in your own songs.

By the end of this class, you will:

• Understand common compositional tools used in popular music
• Create a structural map of typical popular songs
• Understand music theory fundamentals such as: the 12 notes in Western music, enharmonics, intervals (major, minor, augmented, diminished), triads, diatonic chords.
• Learn how to identify the key center of a song.
• Understand roman numeral representation of chord progressions (e.g., I IV V, I V vi IV, etc.).
• Identify and use the following cadences in your own songwriting: half, authentic, plagal, deceptive.
• Identify and use secondary dominants and borrowed chords in your own chord progressions.
• Write a song using your new music theory analysis skills.
• Receive community feedback and benefit from the accountability of working through the class together with a group of peer musicians.

Course Logistics

• Duration: 4 weeks
• Dates & time: 12-1pm PT on 10/30, 11/6, 11/13, and 11/20
• Format: Weekly live 1 hour classes on Zoom
• Prerequisites: None
• Teacher: ab Menon

About your teacher

ab Menon started playing music at a young age and graduated from Sonoma State University with a B.M. in Jazz Studies and Applied Music before continuing on to complete his M.M. in Jazz Studies at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He has taught music for over a decade.

ab has worked in numerous songwriter-focused bands, shepherding songs from initial vision to full band arrangements. He combines his deep guitar chops, knowledge of theory, and songwriting experience with a friendly and approachable teaching style, making him a perfect teacher for both experienced songwriters and those new to the craft.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What if I can't make a class?

  If you can't attend a class, you can still participate by watching the recordings and working through the exercises at your own pace. We will have a Discord community set up where you can ask questions and get help from other students. Refunds are not given for missed classes.

• What skill level is required to take this class?

  This course is designed for people of all levels to benefit. For beginners, we try our best to fully explain concepts from the start; for advanced players, we hope you'll be able to take these concepts and run even farther with them through the prompts and accountability of the group.

  You will get the most out of this class if you know how to play a few chords on your instrument.

• What is your refund policy?

  If you try the first class and decide it's not for you, we can offer a refund. Once the second class begins, we don't offer refunds.