What will I learn?

• What makes a good melody: contour, range, step vs. leap, repetition, tonal diversity and contrast
• How suspended chords keep a song's mood ambiguous, and how a song reveals its colours one at a time
• How a song gives its 3 singers 3 different scales, and how major and minor voices sing together without clashing
• Pedal points and implied tension: how a bass can carry a song by doing almost nothing
• Choosing chords: inversions, voice leading, secondary dominants, diminished colours, and owning the trade-off each choice makes
• Melodic rhythm as the glue of a song: the same rhythm presented in different ways through contrast and embellishment
• Texture as a composition tool: when to reveal each voice, and why the male voice enters so late
• Production lessons from the album: controlled dissonance, keeping something constant while something changes, and why we don't hard quantise everything