@Sylvie Waxweiler-Willems Hi Sylvie, Welcome/Bienvenue. The French method works because it goes straight to the source. You learn through the exercises and corrections: hearing below (soprano exercises/chants donnés) and hearing above (bass exercises/basses données). This is the fundamental relationship, and from there, you work on using the middle voices to balance the extremes. This method allows you to move on to Orchestration in the French Style (=orchestrating piano scores), and fugue, in which the management of keys is the hardest part (plus you must be able to modulate, do sequences, cut and expand the music, which requires mastery of harmony). Our main ‘textbook’ is the 3 part Rules for Root Position Chords series and the Cadences for Root Position Chords. I recommend mastering the absolute beginner exercises, even if you think you have learned it, because we want to iron out any, all deficiencies in our harmonic thinking. The most important is to properly voice the deceptive cadence and to never have parallel fifths and octaves. Taking the time to master the basics, will make it much easier to get to the next levels. I will be releasing the 6 Week Harmony Course for the Absolute Beginner very soon, and following that I will be focusing on the beginner level, which will prepare you for Henri Challan’s harmony workbook series. Welcome to the community, and best of luck with your musical journey. -Barney

@Sylvie Waxweiler-Willems Hi Sylvie, My first year in France, I took 2 hours of harmony a week, one for doing the Henri Challan Workbook series, and the other for doing “Harmonie au Clavier,” in which there were simple bass or soprano exercises that I had to realize via piano. I used Narcis Bonet’s book, who was my first harmony teacher, and the advantage of his book is that it appeared to be simplified to work with Challan. In other words, since I was starting with root position chords, the keyboard harmony book also started with root position chords. After my teacher passed away in 2018, I had a very difficult time finding a teacher for Harmonie au Clavier. It appears that this subject has faded away in France, and is no longer standard practice. To be ready for orchestration and fugue, the Henri Challan workbook series is ‘une value sûre’ (=guaranteed success, if you do the work with integrity), as you will gain the writing skills necessary, and more importantly, the thinking skills that make you capable of orchestrating and doing fugue. I sorely missed doing keyboard harmony, because it is part of what I consider, the master musician, or well-rounded musician: You are playing in real time and realizing harmony, and making decisions. This is a strong complement to the writing exercises. So if you do both: writing and playing, I think this is the key to becoming the master musician, as Bach, Beethoven, and the others would have definitely done this, though in many different manners. If you can do a figured bass class, where you actually have to play and realize (not just study words), then I think that would address a similar gap that Harmonie au Clavier was supposed to address. I actually bought Isabela Duha’s book after my master teacher passed away, but nothing came of it. The problem with books, is if you don’t have a teacher, it’s hard to do much. Especially with Harmonie au Claiver, since how do you know if it is correct or not, if you don’t have an ‘expert’ or someone listening, and who knows it, and can guide you? The advantage of French Harmony Exercises, whether it be the ones here on Skool, or Henri Challan, is that there are corrections, that you can compare your solution against. But yet again, the problem is that if you don’t have a teacher or guide, it’s hard to do the work, or to learn from the corrections. Then Henri Challan has corrections in a separate book, but these are very difficult to make sense of if you don’t have a teacher or a guide (he rarely writes out the alto and tenor). That’s why I’m creating the 6 Week Harmony Course, and guided harmony tutorials, to bridge the gap, for composers and performers who want to learn, but don’t have access to a teacher. Isabel Duha is a highly respected harmony and counterpoint teacher in Paris. I am not sure if she is still actively teaching, but she was when I was there. She writes some of the final exam exercises for various écriture musicale competitions in the area. However, my opinion is that though studying with her might get you extreme technique, there is not enough emphasis on liberation, and you will come to worship the masters, and see yourself as inferior. I find that the best harmony teachers in Paris are the ones that studied with Alain Bernaud: their thinking is clear and sharp, but doesn’t prevent you from composing your own music. This is my opinion, based on living and studying there for 5 years, as well as hearing stories and anecdotes. I think the only value of her book would come if you were to study with her, understand her method, get the discipline to actually do the work when you don’t have weekly checkups, and then to use her book.