Practical Harmony 2
A THINKSPACE INTERACTIVE COURSE
Master the techniques used by some of the greatest songwriters and composers. Learn how to use borrowed chords, extended chords, modal harmony, secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, and more. Plus explore new ways to use chords and harmony to enhance your melodies.
With immersive tutorials, interactive tools, and hands-on exercises, Practical Harmony 2 turns complex theory into usable, creative skills – helping you transform the way you write, arrange, and understand music.
Save even more: Buy in a bundle with Practical Harmony 1, or with all four harmony courses – for a limited time.
write harmonically sophisticated music
module 1
Create richer harmony by expanding beyond basic triads and 7th chords with 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. You'll also explore slash chords and polychords.
module 2
Incorporate borrowed chords (also known as modal interchange or modal mixture) from parallel keys for more expressive progressions, or to take the listener somewhere unexpected.
module 3
Use secondary dominants to add tension, movement, and temporary key shifts. These help you to create stronger harmonic tension, and add melodic freedom.
module 4
Explore modes and their unique colours to shape melody and harmony. Uncover how different modes can add emotional variety and distinct character to your music.
module 5
Develop harmonic structure across entire pieces of music for cohesion and emotional impact. Look at multiple levels of detail: individual phrases, sections, and whole pieces.
module 6
Explore some of the key devices found in jazz that can open up your harmonic palette and spark interesting new ideas – whatever style and genre of music you make.
Master the fundamentals of chords and harmony. Go from basic triads right through to suspensions, 6th and 7th chords, and more
meet your tutors
LUCY HACKETT
Lucy is a musician and composer whose work has been performed and published worldwide (Netflix, Vogue, APM). She is a 2024 Sound and Music ‘Seed Award’ winner and a 2025 Amazon MGM Studios X PRS Foundation ‘Prelude’ recipient. Lucy has gigged extensively across the UK and Europe and has recorded at the world-famous Abbey Road Studios.
TOM JANES
Tom is ThinkSpace Education's resident expert in all things harmony, as well as being an extremely talented classical guitarist. Since 2011 Tom has regularly performed around the UK as a solo classical guitar act and as part of a duo. Tom has also contributed performances and arrangements for TV, short films, audio dramas, and video games
Practical, hands-on learning
MINUSONES
MinusONEs are quick projects that let you apply a newly learned skill – such as adding a harmonic progression to a melody. Instead of starting from a blank screen, we provide MIDI tracks, audio files, and scores that are missing one essential ingredient – you!
Interactive video & quizzes
Our exclusive interactive video technology allows you to have a virtual conversation with Guy and the team: answer questions, make choices, and then get feedback on your decisions. Plus, there are plenty of fun quizzes along the way.
Widgets
includes exclusive live webinars
Introductory offer. Lifetime course access plus two exclusive two-hour live webinars with professional composers. Get extra insights, inspiration and motivation. You'll also receive full recordings.
WEBINAR 1
Being Slick With Key Changes
As well as smoothly linking distinct sections, modulations are often very emotionally engaging and dramatically effective. In this webinar we'll explore how songwriters and composers have created very slick and effective key changes by using different techniques, such as the use of pivot notes and ‘enharmonic modulation’.
WEBINAR 2
Jazz Standard Breakdown: Misty
Wednesday, Dec 10, 3pm UK time
Ever wondered how jazz composers use complex harmonic techniques whilst creating ballads that don't overwhelm the listener? In this webinar we'll break down Erroll Garner's classic jazz track 'Misty', learning how different types of chords and progressions can be used for the same function, creating variation whilst keeping coherence and familiarity.
You will receive Zoom links for the webinars via email after the introductory offer on this course ends. We will do our best to deliver the live sessions as advertised but sometimes life gets in the way and the content, date and time may need to be changed.
Join the community on Discord
This ThinkSpace Interactive course includes lifetime access to our ever-growing community of music makers on Discord. You can chat to other people taking the course, pick up and share tips, and grow your network. You can also share your MinusONEs and other projects from the course to gain useful feedback and pointers from your peers.
Don’t worry if you’ve never used Discord before, it’s simple to get set up, and totally free.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have any questions not answered here, please get in touch using the contact details below and we'll get back to you.
Buy today, start & REVISIT anytime
- Become fluent with complex chord skills, giving you endless options to express your ideas.
- A searchable, illustrated course text with audio and visual examples – the ultimate resource.
- Over 13 hours of video: explanations, tutorials, and music analysis.
- Lifelong access to our global community of music-makers on Discord
Save even more: Buy in a bundle with Practical Harmony 1, or with all four harmony courses – for a limited time only.
Lifetime access. Start, finish and revisit anytime.
30-day money-back policy
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