Piano Rabbit Hole: Improvisation Theory & Practice
The Theory Map — How the Modules Fit Together

The Theory Map — How the Modules Fit Together

This course grew out of one video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6buIdQacoM

Watch it. That way of playing — where a musician takes a melody and freely accompanies it, varies it, reharmonizes it, moves it through styles — is what the whole course points at. No promise you'll play like that soon; playing like that takes years. But understanding what is happening there is absolutely reachable, and that is the goal here. Not "know music theory" as a subject. The goal is a chain of skills:

Hear or remember a melody → understand what is happening harmonically → accompany it → vary it → reharmonize it → improvise around it → arrange it in different styles.

Because I learned piano through the Soviet/Russian system, the early modules use both naming systems in parallel: C = до, D = ре, and so on, gradually making the Western chord symbols automatic. If you see Cyrillic note names and don't read Russian, just ignore them.

The shape of the theory

The 32 modules are grouped into ten Parts, and the Parts are not an arbitrary list — each one exists because the previous one created the need for it:

                       THE MAP OF MUSIC
              how the ten Parts build on each other

     I · THE RAW MATERIAL
         notes · intervals · scales · keys
                         │
    II · HARMONY
         triads · chords in a key · harmonic function
                         │
   III · TWO HANDS
         harmonize a melody · bass & accompaniment
         voice leading
                         │
         ┌───────────────┼───────────────────┐
         │               │                   │
  IV–V · RICHER       VI · MELODY        VII · EAR
  HARMONY             chord tones →      find melodies
  7th chords          phrases →          and chords
  ii–V–I              scales             by hearing them
  extensions             │                   │
  chromaticism           │                   │
         └───────────────┼───────────────────┘
                         │
  VIII · CHANGING THE SONG
         reharmonization · substitution
         intros, fills, endings
                         │
    IX · STYLE
         jazz ballad · blues · pop · waltz · latin
                         │
     X · THE NAHRE SOL TERRITORY
         counterpoint · transforming melody and meter
         → your own complete arrangement
                         │
                         ▼
         THE WORKSHOPS — five Semesters of practice

Read it top to bottom as a story. First you get the raw material of music and learn how it organizes itself into keys (I). Notes stacked together become chords, and chords in a key acquire function — home, movement, tension (II). With harmony understood, your two hands can turn a bare melody into actual music (III). Then the road forks into three tracks that feed each other: richer harmonic vocabulary (IV–V), melodic improvisation (VI), and the ear (VII). Once all three are moving, you can start changing songs rather than just playing them (VIII), dress the result in a style (IX), and finally transform music itself — counterpoint, melodic and metric transformation, a complete arrangement of your own (X). Everything after that is practice: the Workshops.

Course structure

Part I — Build the map of music

Module 1. Notes, intervals, and the keyboard

Module 2. Major scales and scale degrees

Module 3. Minor scales

Part II — Turn notes into harmony

Module 4. Triads

Module 5. Chords inside a key For C major:

C Dm Em F G Am B°

becomes:

I ii iii IV V vi vii°

This is where harmony starts becoming predictable rather than mysterious.

Module 6. Harmonic function

Part III — Start playing without written accompaniment

Module 7. Harmonizing a melody Given a melody note, how do you choose a chord?

For example, melody note C might belong to:

We learn how to use context and your ear to choose.

Module 8. Bass lines and accompaniment Same chord progression played as:

This is where written chords begin turning into actual music.

Module 9. Voice leading Instead of jumping:

Dm → G → C

we find inversions where individual notes move minimally.

This is one of the biggest differences between “playing the correct chords” and sounding like a pianist.

Part IV — Seventh chords and jazz vocabulary

Module 10. Seventh chords

And, importantly, why:

C7 ≠ Cmaj7

Module 11. ii-V-I The central progression:

Dm7 → G7 → Cmaj7

Then:

Module 12. Secondary dominants Instead of:

C → Am → Dm → G7 → C

play:

C → E7 → Am → A7 → Dm → G7 → C

We learn the rule:

To strongly approach a chord, temporarily use its V7.

Part V — Make harmony richer

Module 13. Extensions

Module 14. Diminished chords This returns specifically to things like B°.

We learn:

Module 15. Chromatic harmony

Not as abstract theory: every idea comes with “here is what this does to a song.”

Part VI — Melody and improvisation

Module 16. Chord tones first Before scales, learn to improvise by aiming for:

That keeps the melody attached to the harmony.

Module 17. Passing and neighbor tones How to turn:

C → E → G

into an actual musical phrase instead of an exercise.

We use:

Module 18. Scales for improvisation Only now:

And, crucially, when not to think about scales at all.

Part VII — Play by ear

Module 19. Finding melodies How to hear:

We start with very familiar melodies.

Module 20. Finding chords by ear Listen for:

Eventually you should be able to hear something and think:

I → vi → ii → V

rather than hunt for random chords.

Part VIII — Reharmonization and arrangement

Module 21. Reharmonizing a melody Take something as simple as Happy Birthday and make:

  1. basic version
  2. seventh-chord version
  3. secondary-dominant version
  4. jazzier version
  5. your own version

Module 22. Substitution Learn why one chord can replace another:

Module 23. Intro, fills, and endings Instead of starting immediately with the melody:

This makes a performance sound arranged rather than merely accompanied.

Part IX — Style

Module 24. Jazz ballad

Module 25. Blues

Module 26. Pop

Module 27. Waltz / classical-style accompaniment

Module 28. Latin/Bossa foundations Not trying to turn you into a Brazilian pianist—just enough rhythmic independence to recognize how the same chords can acquire a radically different character.

Part X — The Nahre Sol territory

Module 29. Counterpoint and multiple voices

Module 30. Transforming a melody As in the video that started all this:

Module 31. Meter and rhythmic transformation Take the same tune and turn:

Module 32. Build your own complete arrangement Final project:

Choose one melody you know well.

Create:

That is this course's equivalent of the final stage of the video.

How each module works

Every module is hands-on, built from the same seven pieces:

1. Theory — 10–15 minutes worth

Only the minimum concepts needed.

2. Keyboard demonstration

Exact notes, for example:

G7 = G-B-D-F = соль-си-ре-фа

3. Ear exercise

Something you can actually listen for at the piano.

4. Finger exercise

Not Hanon-like technique for its own sake; something connected to the harmony.

5. Musical exercise

Apply it to an actual melody.

6. Improvisation challenge

Something intentionally without a single “correct” answer.

7. Mini-test

For example:

You're in F major. What is ii? What is V7? Which diminished chord leads to F? Play a ii-V-I.

That way every module continuously reinforces the earlier ones.

One rule for this whole course

Whenever possible, we learn relationships instead of lists.

For example, don't memorize:

G7 goes to C. D7 goes to G. A7 goes to D. E7 goes to A...

Instead:

V7 resolves down a fifth / up a fourth.

Then the whole list follows automatically.

Likewise, don't memorize 12 separate major scales as unrelated objects. Learn how scales are constructed and how the Circle of Fifths organizes them.

That is the difference between knowing 100 musical facts and possessing a musical system you can actually manipulate.

Where to start

Module 1 is a little unusual for a piano course. This course assumes you can already play and read music at a basic level, so instead of beginner notation it goes straight to rebuilding your mental model around:

keyboard geometry → intervals → scale degrees → chord symbols → hearing relationships.

If your training was classical (or Soviet-classical, like mine), that chain is the bridge into the jazz/pop/improvisational language everything else here uses. Start with Module 1: The Keyboard as a System.