Beat Kitchen Articles

Everything here is free — no paywall, no login, no catch. Music theory, production techniques, audio engineering, creative process — it’s all yours. What we teach at Beat Kitchen isn’t in the videos. It’s in the conversations, the feedback, the people who actually listen to your work and help you get better. Browse as long as you like. And when you’re ready to work with people who care about your music, come join us.

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Video thumbnail: If you go to school to be an audio engineer one of the things they’re gonna teach you about is...

speaker delays

If you go to school to be an audio engineer one of the things they’re gonna teach you about is speaker delays It’s because of the legs so here’s the thing sound travels at roughly 1100 feet per second that works out to about 1.1 millisecond per foot my front gate.

god only knows

These are the chords from Brad Wilson’s "God Only Knows." The song’s originally an E, but we’ve moved it to C to conform to our ten chord toolkit.

Major Key Don't Assume: picardy third

Don’t assume that just because you start off in a minor key, that you have to end up in one.

Video thumbnail: Today in office hours I helped one of our students conform some of their free playing onto a tempo...

Finding the sculpture inside the stone

Today in office hours I helped one of our students conform some of their free playing onto a tempo grid.

Chess pieces and audio cables on a chessboard atop a piano

The Stereo Mid Side Chess Test

A thought exercise to test your understanding of stereo imaging, mid side processing, phase, polarity, and signal flow.

Hello: nice to meet you

Welcome to a ton of new followers and I figured I’d introduce myself.

Phase on a Cylinder

Avoid misunderstanding phase by asking yourself: could a waveform exist across a cylinder? Where polarity and phase differ, it matters.

Weather Sonification

What if you could hear everything? Sound waves are spheres with pressure in one dimension and time in the other.

Gain Staging

If you are using the term "gained staging" as a verb, you might be overthinking it.

Video thumbnail: There are 12 keys. Does it matter which one you pick? As musicians, we’re taught early and often...

Not All Keys Are the Same

There are 12 keys. Does it matter which one you pick? As musicians, we’re taught early and often that we should be proficient in all keys and while that’s true,…

Video thumbnail: Sometimes we can easily explain the relationship between two chords using an established music...

Any Two Chords Go Together

Sometimes we can easily explain the relationship between two chords using an established music theory device.

Don't Make Peace the Enemy

Taking a break isn’t just critical for your body and your mind, but also your spirit.

Major and Minor Thirds in C

When you’re playing on all white keys and you skip a note, you’re playing a third.

Video thumbnail: Before we begin to discuss delay, echo, and reverb, let’s take a second to talk about the Haas...

Landmark: Haas Effect

Before we begin to discuss delay, echo, and reverb, let’s take a second to talk about the Haas effect.

Half-Diminished Shell

There’s a reasonable chance that the first minor chord you ever learned was an A minor.

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Showing 12 of 569 articles (Page 20 of 48)

Chord Thinking over Key Thinking

I favor chord thinking over key thinking, and here’s what I mean.

Borrowed Chord

What is a borrowed chord?

Compression: frequency or level

Does a compressor operate on level or frequency?

Altoids Patchbay Tester

So what the heck is this?

Keytar: cables and Archemedes

It was the great Greek physicist Archimedes who said, "Give me a lever long enough and I’ll break your keytar.

Why is Compression

Everyone learns what a compressor does. The real question is why. A compressor isn't a one-trick pony — it's the same tool solving a whole variety of …

chorDLE! ear training — identify the constant note and name the chord

chorDLE!: Try To Accomplish Two Things

An ear training exercise: identify the note that never changes and name the chord at the end — by structure or by function.

Keyboard MVP

The most valuable piano voicing you can learn — a 6/4 inversion straight out of Miles Davis that exerts maximum force for minimum energy.

Getting Started

We see both experienced and beginner producers at Bee Kitchen.

Another Cable Wrapping Video

I can’t believe I’m saying this.

Reach: Keyboard Extremities

Thoughts on playing wide intervals on piano, plus a couple exercises from physical therapy for extending your reach.

Stereo Source: Mono Reverb

Stereosaurus, monoreverb.