Keyboard Skills and Compositions
12-Week Course (36 Hours) • 3 hours per week • 3 hour evening or daytime class once a week	6-Week Course (36 Hours)  • 6 hours per week  • 3 hour evening or daytime class twice a week

Who is it for?	16 – 19 year olds, school leavers and Mature Students – Novice Song writers, composers, producers & beat-makers
What is the skill level requirement:	Entry level 2: Beginners with little music experience
How much does it cost?	£899 (£800 Introduction Offer) - approx. £22 p/h
What do I get in the end?	A certificate of achievement and recommendation for further education.

Course Overview:  Keyboard Skills and Composition is the perfect course if you wish to accompany your existing songs and enhance your song writing, learn chords, progressions, playing and writing techniques. This course will provide anyone from the novice singer-songwriters to producers and beat makers who wish to extend their composition skills further with inside information on how make the most of their compositions, using the keyboard to improve their performance skills and widen their song writing scope. Many popular songs are based around simple compositional principles that reach right back to the classical music of the 1700s. Once you understand these principles you can really build on your own song writing. Taking examples of successful songs from different genres, we will analyse how they are constructed, and the reasons behind their enduring appeal. You will learn how to read simple jazz/chordal notation, and how to use this when writing your own songs. You will be taught how to move around the piano in a sophisticated manner, and how to apply simple riffs to change the mood of your songs. We will be looking at the nuts and bolts of composition and song structure, going over your options when moving from the verse to the chorus, to the middle eight and back. With Song Doctor Workshops throughout the course, you will be expected to write songs in your own time, and to be prepared to play them to your peers. In a constructive environment, we shall see how you are applying your new knowledge, and swap ideas on how the group's songs could be improved.

Course Content • Introduction to the keyboard • Chords and their inversions • Reading chord notation • Chord Progressions • Three chords and the truth... or four? • Verses, choruses and middle eights • Moving around a song– your options • How to add 7ths and 9ths to change the colour of your songs • Rhythm and riffs • Song Doctor Workshops