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Borrowed Chord

July 28, 2025 · Beat Kitchen · Music Theory

Theory Gym Instrument Gym

Transcription of the video above

What is a borrowed chord? Just think of it as a temporary departure from the major key to the minor. We’ll be discussing it in Music Theory Gym.

Put it under your fingers and share this with someone who belongs in a Beat Kitchen class.

Tags: music-theory

Video thumbnail: What is a borrowed chord?

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Recent Resident Gyms
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through a one-on-one FL Studio session focused on chord voicings, register, and arrangement fundamentals. We diagnosed why the student's chords were sitting too low and muddy in the mix, corrected it through manual note transposition and chord inversion principles, and then built out a basic bass layer to fill the harmonic space we opened up. Along the way we covered the four core arrangement zones — rhythm, harmony, bass, and lead — and talked through how they function together in a beat.
- OFFICE HOURS: Went through a mix of Alee's and talked about arrangement, distribution of frequencies and lumping in mixes
- THEORY-GYM: We dug into Al Jarreau's "We're in This Love Together" as a live analysis vehicle, unpacking its deceptively simple harmonic language — predominantly plagal motion, super sus chords, and bass-line-driven pseudo-chord changes. From there we traced a sophisticated turnaround section that flirts with a Giant Steps-style modulation before resolving differently, and closed with a brief but rich look at vocal formant production and how great singers physically shape tone without needing the engineer to fix it.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Breakdown of "Time Moves Slow" by BADBADNOTGOOD, production style, tempo push/pull, song structure, drum texture and keyboard sound
- OFFICE HOURS: We talked about picking monitors and acoustic treatment
- THEORY-GYM: We used Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" as a masterclass in arrangement, mix balance, and harmonic construction. Explored how a song with minimal formal structure can build enormous intensity through restraint, dynamic layering, and the deliberate elevation of a single voice above the ensemble. Worked through the chord progression in B-flat, covering secondary dominants, the plagal cadence, sus chords, and invertional analysis (6-3 and 6-4 voicings) in relation to the harmonic series.
- OFFICE HOURS: We talked about producing for other artists and some of the steps required to practice doing so, artist residencies, and going from thinking to doing.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed beats and tracks submitted by students for the Weekly Beat Challenge. Covered topics ranged from animated/interactive audio installations and code-driven visuals to detailed mix critique — examining dynamics, compression, drum bus treatment, stereo imaging, and the concept of "overworking" a mix. Closed out with some DAW workflow tips including creating click tracks from recorded guitar, using separate drum channels for verse/chorus treatment, and a quick-action loudness tool for macOS.
- INSTRUMENT-GYM: Piano hand independence with basic boogie-woogie piano exercises and blues patterns
- OFFICE HOURS: Bouncing stems in pro tools stems vs track outs Bouncing a track in pro tools Mastering compressor basics signal flow in pro tools
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Upcoming Resident Events
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Mar. 16, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Jam Phelps
  Mar. 16, 9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)
- Production Gym: Ben Krueger
  Mar. 16, 9pm (PT) | 12am (ET) | 5am (UK)
- Instrument Gym: Kallie
  Mar. 17, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Scott Hampton
  Mar. 17, 10am (PT) | 1pm (ET) | 6pm (UK)
- Ear Training: Jon Mattox
  Mar. 17, 5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)
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Upcoming Courses
- Apr 02, 2026 Comprehensive Program
- Apr 2, 2026 DAW Core Skills
- Apr 18, 2026 Harmony 1-Day Intensive
- Apr 19, 2026 Musician Basics Elective
- Apr 22, 2026 Effects, Synth, & Mixing Primer
- May 7, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- May 11, 2026 Vocal Kitchen
- May 23, 2026 Logic Pro 1-Day Intensive
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