Music Production Mentoring

Reviewed beat challenge submissions from multiple students, with feedback centered on percussion choices, rhythmic feel, and the relationship between drum programming and a piece's overall character. Discussed how early placement of a drum loop or plugin shapes compositional decisions in ways that are difficult to reverse, and explored the value of working with unconventional or handmade percussion sources. Also touched on the Beat Kitchen Harmony Wheel app — current store status, scale/mode counting, chord recognition accuracy, and upcoming fixes.

We talked about giving yourself grace when learning mixing and production, we hunted down a few reference tracks for Jon, We also talked about saturation and how to achieve a specific sound Jon was going for.

Covered the limitations of traditional music theory when applied to contemporary rock and songwriting, using chord quality recognition and ear training as a practical entry point. Discussed how borrowing chords outside a key's diatonic set is common and useful, and why chasing what sounds good often matters more than fitting strict theoretical rules. Offered guidance on learning songs by ear, alternate guitar tunings, guitar setup and maintenance, and using a DAW to capture and develop ideas.

We explored secondary dominants using a real-world example: the chord progression from "Hush" by The Marias (A minor 9 – D7 – G major 7 – G7). The central question was how to identify and label non-diatonic dominant seventh chords in a progression whose key center is itself ambiguous. Discussion moved through multiple analytical lenses — five-of-five, five-of-four, modal interchange, and 2-5-1 in a relative major — without settling on a single definitive answer, which itself became part of the lesson.

Covered foundational house music production concepts including beat structure, syncopation, bass line writing, sidechain compression, and basic mixing/mastering in FL Studio. Worked through a live build of a simple house beat from percussion patterns through bass layering, chord movement, and final limiting. Also reviewed a student's Ableton project built from hardware effects and discussed next steps for arrangement and sound design.

Listened to 3 chord progressions blocked and arpeggiated. Students to identify which chords contained 7ths. Followed by aural breakdown of each chord—strategies for hearing 7ths in chords vertically AND horizontally through chord progressions. Interesting notes, triads and open 5ths sounds clearer than 7th chords which tend to add bits of heaviness. Explored different colors achieved through various voicings.