Keyboard Harmony

Over the years I’ve taught many people who have proficient keyboard skills, some of whom can perform repertoire at an impressive level. Yet, when it comes to Sight Reading, Aural skills, and/ or keyboard harmony skills they are struggling.

By working at keyboard harmony many have been pleasantly surprised that not only can they improvise and harmonise melodies but that this also vastly improves their ability to Sight Read and to tackle Aural skills. These threads are indeed very closely related and integral to anyone seeking to be an all-round musician.

I was so lucky that during my formative years musically I was a church organist. Very quickly I had to learn to improvise because brides arrived late for weddings or the collection was still being taken when the hymn had finished or the Priest was clearing up at the end of distributing Communion. My early attempts were uncertain but as the years passed I became more confident. These improvisations started to include cadences, modulations, more colourful chords, more interesting melodic design, greater counterpoint, and variety of musical styles. I’m absolutely convinced that this regular development of keyboard harmony made Aural work and Aural Dictation much easier for me, it made written harmony seem like a natural extend of keyboard harmony, and it made Sight Reading easier - all because the keyboard harmony enabled me to hear everything that was sounding or that was written down.

Whether you’re a so-called “Classical” musician, or a jazzer, or play in a band, if you’re a keyboard player, keyboard harmony is central to developing all these associated skills. If you’re a composer keyboard harmony skills are a real lifeline.

Those early skills have served me well throughout my musical life. Now I want to share all that with you so you can experience that musical liberation too. This is what lies at the heart of our keyboard harmony course.