Tiny Instrument · Content Pack
Advanced Theory
Advanced Theory takes you from foundational knowledge into the territory that makes music feel alive: how chords function together in a key, the seven modal colors of the major scale, and the extended harmony techniques that define jazz, film, and contemporary music.
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Chapter 7 — Chord Progressions & Harmony
How chords work together to create music
Diatonic Chords
Building a chord on every note of the scale
Common Progressions
The chord sequences behind thousands of songs
Tension & Resolution
The engine that drives music forward
Cadences
The punctuation marks of music
Harmonizing a Melody
Choosing chords that support a melodic line
Chord Functions
The grammar behind every progression
Chapter 8 — Improvisation
Making music in the moment
- Improvising over chord changes
- Target notes and approach notes
- Call and response
- Building a solo from simple ideas
Chapter 9 — Modes
Seven colors from one scale
What Are Modes?
The 7 rotations of the major scale
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian
Bright to dark
Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian
Completing the set
Modal Interchange
Borrowing chords from parallel modes
Chapter 10 — Advanced Harmony
Beyond the basics — the colors of sophisticated music
Secondary Dominants
Tonicizing other chords
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from the parallel minor
Modulation
Changing keys within a piece
Extended Chords
9ths, 11ths, and 13ths
Putting It All Together
Analyzing a real progression
Chapter 29 — Melody & Form
How melodies are decorated, shaped, and structured
Passing & Neighbor Tones
Notes that decorate a line by step
Suspensions & Other Embellishments
Accented and leap-based nonchord tones
Phrases & Periods
The musical sentence
Binary & Ternary Form
How sections build a whole piece
Decorate a Phrase
Put embellishment and phrasing together
Chapter 30 — Playing Songs with Chords
Turn a chord progression into a song you can play
The Four-Chord Song
One loop behind countless hits
More Pop Progressions
Doo-wop, blues, and ii–V–I
Reading a Chord Chart
Chords over lyrics and bars
Making Chords Sound Like a Song
Accompaniment patterns
Play It in Your Key
Transpose to sing comfortably
Play a Song
Put it all together
Play & Explore groups
- Chords — explore chord shapes and voicings across all inversions
- Technique — fingering exercises, thumb crossunder, and triad shapes
- Jazz — jazz chord vocabulary and voicing exercises