If your notebook is full of unused lyrics and you’re struggling to find inspiration for the music, this course is for you. Whether you are an experienced songwriter looking for new ideas or a beginning songwriter learning to read music, this course will lead you to a rich source of songwriting possibilities.
Led by award winning songwriter and Berklee College of Music professor Scarlet Keys, you’ll learn to construct strong, expressive melodies that your audience will remember as well as experiment with new chords to break out of any harmonic rut. Whether you are new to writing music or are looking for new ideas to change up your songs, this class will teach you how to make deliberate choices with your harmonies and melodies to best emulate the emotions you want your audience to feel. You will start by discovering common chord progression and tying specific emotions to each chords in a scale. Then you will practice changing the harmonic and melodic rhythm of a song to better highlight important lyrics. Finally, you will learn to create melodic hooks and simple techniques to help you generate new melodic ideas.
Status: Musical Composition
Musical Composition
Status: Storytelling
Storytelling
Intermediate·Course·12 hours
Featured reviews
RM
5.0·Reviewed Feb 10, 2025
Truly exceptional class, I am grateful Berklee makes this content available on Coursera
ER
4.0·Reviewed Mar 30, 2026
This course will be frustrating for anyone who does not read music. I had to check several references to answer some of the questions in the quizzes. But the professor shared many useful tips!
BM
5.0·Reviewed Jul 10, 2022
 That was a great course and I loved the chords lessons in songwriting.Thanks.
FR
5.0·Reviewed Jun 20, 2022
A very helpful course. It helped me a lot when it comes to harmonic rythm
HN
5.0·Reviewed Dec 6, 2023
incredibly helpful! great starting point for aspiring musicians! I learned a lot from this course, it was a rewarding journey!
HV
5.0·Reviewed Mar 17, 2022
Super helpful primer on the key things to think about when selecting chords and rhythms for a song!
All reviews
Showing: 20 of 25
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Most Helpful
S
Sylvain L
4.0
·Reviewed Sep 28, 2022
5 star for the content of the lessons, by the stellar Scarlet Keys.
She will help you raise your game in making your music express the emotions you wanted to convey.
Note: the videos from this course are available for free on Berklee's YT channel, so if you don't need the certificate...
Minus 1 star for the outdated and clumsy user experience from Coursera: impractical, difficult to navigate and confusing. The peer-rating system is particularly bad. Time to completely rethink it.
P
Paula Propst
5.0
·Reviewed Jul 24, 2022
This was such a wonderful course. I had taken music theory in college and had the classical training, but this course is exactly what I wanted to learn beyond what I was taught. Scarlet does such a great job conveying the emotions that are associated with certain chords and chord progressions and really breaks down what you need to create prosody in music. It is challenging, but in the best way possible.
B
Beautiful Moon
5.0
·Reviewed Jul 11, 2022
That was a great course and I loved the chords lessons in songwriting.
Thanks.
F
Fabs Rejas
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 21, 2022
A very helpful course. It helped me a lot when it comes to harmonic rythm
T
Themba Modiba
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 4, 2022
loved the course, learnt a lot.
I
Ian L. Malcolm
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 28, 2022
Great course. You'll learn about which chords and melodies - along with the lyrics - invoke specific emotions. I would say that the only downside is that it's more geared toward piano/keyboard players instead of other instruments. An understanding of basic music theory is a good idea before starting this course.
L
Luis García
5.0
·Reviewed Jun 13, 2022
Ha sido un curso muy inspirador, las ideas propuestas por la profesora resultan muy útiles y las tareas están muy bien planteadas. Es un buen material al que regresar siempre que las musas estén visitando a Beyoncé :)
H
Hera Merchandise Aqua
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 9, 2022
It really helped me understand how the music plays a part in a song, working with the lyrics. It encouraged me to try out stuff and write fearlessly.
H
Hương Mai Nguyễn
5.0
·Reviewed Dec 6, 2023
incredibly helpful! great starting point for aspiring musicians! I learned a lot from this course, it was a rewarding journey!
H
Heather Vance
5.0
·Reviewed Mar 17, 2022
Super helpful primer on the key things to think about when selecting chords and rhythms for a song!
R
Rachel Anne Murphy
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 10, 2025
Truly exceptional class, I am grateful Berklee makes this content available on Coursera
M
Mariano Mendicuti Cortes
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 7, 2024
So helpful, fascinating, funny and interesting.
R
Rubén González
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 31, 2023
I highly
Recommend
this course!
D
Dikaia Margo
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 29, 2021
This is a great course!
P
PABLO LEONARDO ALVEZ MONTERO
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 6, 2022
I love it. Thank you!
M
Mukwato Mukwato
5.0
·Reviewed May 6, 2023
wonderful course
M
Mario Ayabaca
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 6, 2021
Great course!
J
Justus Kato Atwongyeire
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 1, 2023
the best
M
Moulay Ali Elmghari Tabib
5.0
·Reviewed Apr 27, 2024
ok
E
Evaluation Researchers
4.0
·Reviewed Mar 31, 2026
This course will be frustrating for anyone who does not read music. I had to check several references to answer some of the questions in the quizzes. But the professor shared many useful tips!
