The Fundamentals of Piano Composition

Alex Heppelmann, Instructor

Welcome to the latest short course in my 'Fundamentals of Music Composition' series: The Fundamentals of Piano Composition.

The Fundamentals of Piano Composition is designed to help you to become a better composer, specifically for the piano; though, many techniques presented in the course apply to music composition in general. This course is organized into four units of material:

Unit 1 | Introduction & Basic Concepts

• On Writing for the Piano
• Technicalities of the Piano Instrument
• Understanding Piano Music
• Simple Left-Hand Accompanimental Textures
• Simple Melodic Writing

Unit 2 | Developing Piano Textures

• Two-Hand Textures
• Contrapuntal Textures
• Varying an Idea
• Theme & Variations

Unit 3 | Piano Form

• Ternary & Rounded Binary
• Rondo & Arch Form
• Sonata Form

Unit 4 | Special Topics

• Recording the Piano
• Piano VST Instruments
• MIDI & Mockup
• Piano Accompaniments
• Piano & Orchestra

Each unit will contain multiple chapters of lecture material. Lectures will be accompanied by a variety of supplemental materials, including exercises, longer assignments, and downloadable files (MIDI, MXML, Dorico, Cubase)

Suggested Prerequisites

While the majority of lectures will include downloadable MXML files, in most cases I assume the student has the ability to read and comprehend standard notation. The majority of excerpt examples in the lecture videos will be displayed using standard notation (grand piano staff).

You should also have a familiarity with basic music theory, including but not limited to: tonal harmony, chords and chord voicings.

You do not need to be a pianist yourself to compose for the piano! However, it would certainly be beneficial to have access to a piano nearby, or full size MIDI keyboard.

Course Exercises & Assignments

If you're interested in personal feedback on course exercises or assignments, you may be interested in online 1-on-1 lessons. Email me (heppelmusic@gmail.com) for details.

Lastly, I wanted to thank all of my supporters on Patreon. This is the second course that I've created with the help of my patrons, and their feedback and support was invaluable throughout four months of weekly video uploads.

Current State of the Course

At the date of publication (March 4, 2026), this short course features 99% of the material that I initially planned, and I've priced the course based on the content available right now. However, I want to add a few additional chapters in Unit 3 (e.g., Waltz, Nocturne, Prelude, etc...), and so I'll be adding these soon. Because each of these chapters requires me to compose a lot of piano music, it takes a bit of time to publish!

I'll post all future updates to new content right here...

(March 4 update) - currently finishing my Chapter 3.4 (sonata form) piano composition, and I'm documenting my process for a guided workshop on using sonata form.

March 5 update - added Chapter 3.4 downloadable files & Appendix materials