Mission: Musician Basics

The goal of the upcoming musician basics elective is to get you to recognize that you can stack a bunch of notes together and create a chord.

Picardy Third

If you ever played a pretty chord progression in a minor key and then just switched to a major at the end, you probably just played a pickerty third.

We Can't Teach You How To Mix (v2)

We can’t teach you how to mix, nobody can.

Stop Clapping Like an Idiot

If you’ve already trained your ear to identify the sonic footprint of a room, a sharp clap can be a great way to do a quick evaluation.

Mixing In Headphones

Just Get The Take

There are vocalists out there that will never ever give you a good performance in headphones, but even seasoned vocalists sometimes have a hard time matching the vibe and the performance of a relaxed studio environment with the monitors on.

I Am the Transducer (first version)

The act of transduction involves taking energy in one form and converting it into another.

Mic Suspension for Upright Bass

Recording every instrument comes with its own set of challenges, but this one, it can be a real beast.

Dominant Diminished Suspensions: chords for a sunday

A gospel-flavored chord progression using dominant, diminished, and suspended chords — how the tension and resolution cycle creates that Sunday morning sound.

Beat Building Jam: what is it

Okay, fair question. Beat building jams are an opportunity for a variety of instructors to identify inefficiencies in your workflow. They’re one-hour morning gym workouts in which each week a…

songwriting finish

Raise your hand if you get stuck finishing a song.

Phase Cancellation

When two signals run out of phase, they cancel.

where does a diminished chord go

Where does a diminished chord resolve? The passing, leading-tone, and auxiliary functions that make diminished chords useful — not just theoretical.

Audio Masking: Drop and Cut Technique

For a mix engineer, masking is one of the first things you contend with — and it never stops showing its face. Here's a dead simple way to solve it.

Form: Music Theory Run-On Sentence

Even if you learn some music theory, you can still write ridiculously long, run-on sentences if that's your thing.