Skip to main content
Monte Cristo Logo
Monte Cristo

Chords & Harmony

Study sheet

Chords and harmony involve the study of simultaneous musical pitches and how they progress over time. Learners will understand chord construction, voice leading, harmonic functions, and how to build emotional tension and resolution in their musical compositions.

21 resources

Level
Type

📺YouTube(4)

youtube👁️ 0

Charles Cornell

Purchase College jazz piano graduate combining comedy with genuine music education. His '5 Versions' series makes reharmonisation and chord substitution surprisingly accessible. ~1.4M subscribers.

intermediate🇬🇧
youtube👁️ 1

Aimee Nolte Music

Uniquely combines jazz piano with vocal and scat education — ii–V–I tutorials and standard analysis from real performance experience. ~300K+ subscribers.

intermediate🇬🇧
youtube👁️ 1

Jazz Tutorial with Julian Bradley

The most comprehensive free jazz piano education on YouTube — voicings, improvisation, and jazz scales with a structured step-by-step approach. Master's in music composition. ~418K subscribers.

intermediate🇬🇧
youtube👁️ 0

Bill Hilton Piano

One of the longest-running piano channels (since 2008) — the go-to for chord-based playing, cocktail jazz, and improvisation. Calm British teaching style. ~429K subscribers. Start here for lead-sheet playing.

beginner🇬🇧

🎓Courses(2)

course👁️ 2

Fundamentals of Music Theory

This course, revised in 2022, will introduce you to the theory of music, providing you with the skills needed to read and write Western music notation, as well as to understand, analyse, and listen informedly. It will cover material such as pitches and scales, intervals, clefs, rhythm, form, metre and time signatures, phrases and cadences, and basic harmony. This course covers the fundamentals of Western music theory, from the absolute basics to some more advanced concepts. As such, it delivers material for beginners and offers much to experienced musicians alike. Learners can apply for Financial Aid directly with Coursera to assist with the cost of accessing the full course and gaining a certificate for successfully completing the course.

beginner🇬🇧
course👁️ 0

Jazz Improvisation (Gary Burton / Berklee / Coursera)

Gary Burton brings Berklee's core jazz curriculum to anyone with an internet connection — free to audit. Covers jazz improvisation foundations and chord-scale relationships.

intermediate🇬🇧

📚Books(7)

scroll for more →
book👁️ 0

How to Really Play the Piano by Bill Hilton

Teaches lead-sheet playing, voicings, and rhythm patterns for adults who want to play songs without full classical training. Emphasises musical intuition — the definitive text for chord-based pop and cocktail piano.

beginner🇬🇧
book👁️ 0

Voicings for Jazz Keyboard by Frank Mantooth

Two-hand voicing patterns for jazz keyboard — practical application of harmonic knowledge at the piano.

intermediate🇬🇧
book👁️ 0

Jazz Keyboard Harmony by Phil DeGreg

Systematic voicing practice for jazz pianists — the essential companion to Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book for developing harmonic vocabulary at the keyboard.

intermediate🇬🇧
book👁️ 0

The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine

The bible of jazz piano — voicings, comping, stride, block chords, and improvisation in 300+ pages (Sher Music). Required at universities worldwide. Jazz piano demands its own curriculum; start here.

intermediate🇬🇧
book👁️ 1

Harmony and Voice Leading

Harmony and Voice Leading - A book resource

intermediate🇬🇧
book👁️ 0

The Chord Wheel

The Chord Wheel - A book resource

intermediate🇬🇧
book👁️ 0

The Jazz Harmony Book

The Jazz Harmony Book - A book resource

intermediate🇬🇧

🌐Websites(8)

scroll for more →
website👁️ 0

Teoria

Free website with harmony exercises and explanations

beginner🇬🇧
website👁️ 0

musictheory.net

Free interactive lessons on chords and harmony

beginner🇬🇧
website👁️ 0

Hooktheory

Interactive tool for exploring chords and progressions, free basic version

beginner🇬🇧
website👁️ 0

PianoGroove

Structured jazz piano instruction online — one of the most comprehensive resources for adults learning jazz harmony and voicings at the keyboard.

intermediate🇬🇧
website👁️ 0

iReal Pro

Generates realistic backing tracks from chord charts in 51+ styles. Indispensable for jazz piano practice — used at Berklee and Musicians Institute. ~£13–18 one-time purchase.

intermediate🇬🇧
website👁️ 0

hooktheory.com

Hooktheory is an interactive music-theory platform for learning chords and harmony. It offers theory lessons, chord-function explanations, and an extensive library of pop-song progressions with interactive diagrams to analyze and create progressions.

intermediate🇬🇧
website👁️ 0

musictheory.net

MusicTheory.net provides free, concise music theory lessons and interactive exercises on chords, harmony, scales, intervals, and rhythm, with practical tools like a piano keyboard, interval ear trainer, and chord progression builder.

intermediate🇬🇧
website👁️ 0

teoria.com

Teoria is an interactive music theory site with lessons, exercises, and ear-training tools focused on chords and harmony. It features interactive notation, listening examples, and practice on chord progressions and harmonic concepts.

intermediate🇬🇧

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best free resources to learn Chords & Harmony?

Dantes has curated 21 resources for Chords & Harmony, including 4 YouTube videos, 7 books, 2 courses, 8 websites. All resources are hand-picked for quality — no algorithmic filler. Browse the full list above to find the format that works best for you.

Is Chords & Harmony hard to learn?

Chords & Harmony is approachable at the beginner level — there are resources here specifically for those starting from scratch. As you progress, intermediate and advanced material is also available to take your skills further.

What types of Chords & Harmony learning resources are available on Dantes?

For Chords & Harmony, Dantes has curated 4 YouTube videos, 7 books, 2 courses, 8 websites. Each resource type serves a different learning style: videos and YouTube for visual learners, books for depth, courses for structured progression, and websites for quick reference.

How does Dantes select Chords & Harmony resources?

Dantes is an algorithm-free learning directory. Resources are hand-curated based on quality, accuracy, and usefulness — not engagement metrics or paid placements. The goal is to surface the best learning material for Chords & Harmony, whether it's a free YouTube series, a classic textbook, or an open courseware from a top university.

Go deeper

Test your understanding of Chords & Harmony

Explain it out loud. An AI tutor listens and asks questions that expose gaps you didn't know you had.