Music Theory for Songwriters, Composers and Improvisors - Online Courses - Adult Learning

Online Courses, Nottingham

Date	13 January - 24 March 2026
Sessions	Tuesdays: 3pm - 4pm
No. sessions	10
Venue	Online Courses, Nottingham View venue details View on Google Maps
For ages	19+
Group size	5 - 15
Cost	FREE - £40

About this course

Are you a budding songwriter, composer or Improvisor? Do you want to know how to apply music theory to your work and understand how it will inform your rhythms, melodies, harmonies, narrative structure, timbre and texture and how they combine to make memorable songs, compositions and improvisations?

Join us on this course where we will explore the above through examples and put together our own ideas to construct songs and musical pieces. Course Summary: The exploration, with examples, of how the application of music theory informs how rhythms, melodies, harmonies, narrative structure, timbre and texture combine to make memorable songs, compositions and improvisations.

By the end of the course, you will understand how to construct songs, musical pieces and/or solos to a proficient level, covering topics and themes including:

- Basic rhythms

- Notes Scales & Chord Progressions

- Primary and Secondary Chords

- Hierarchy of chords / Improvising scales

- More complex rhythms

- Timbre & Texture

- Song structure

- Riffs & Motifs

- More complex chords / passing chords / modulations

- Putting it all together

Booking your place and fee information

If you receive certain benefits you will be offered the course for free, however if you have a financial barrier which may prevent you from enrolling on the course, please visit our funding page for further information.

Residency in England

To book and enrol on one of our courses, you must be living in England permanently and live outside of the devolved areas listed below or live within the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) devolved area (Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire).

Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Greater London
Greater Manchester
Liverpool City Region
Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside and Northumberland
Tees Valley
West of England
West Midlands
West Yorkshire

Residency Eligibility – other criteria

If you are living in the UK on a visa we will require evidence of this in order to be funded for the course, you can upload this evidence when you apply for the course. (completion of a questionnaire will be required).

Some exceptions may apply for example

Your visa expiry date must be beyond the end of your course
Asylum seekers must have lived in the UK for 6 months or longer while their claim is being considered by the Home Office
You are receiving local authority support under section 23C or section 23CA of the Children Act 1989 or the Care Act 2014