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Small Bites

Content from our social media — music theory, songwriting, engineering, mixing, synthesis, and more — collected in one place. If you saw something on our page and want to find it again, it's here. Read it, search it, share it.

Featured Bite

Your Ears Are Lying To You

Your ears will tell you whatever you want to hear. Until you learn to set loudness landmarks, you're mixing with luck.

Learn This Chord Progression — common tone diminished vs dominant

Learn This Chord Progression: Wrong Answers Only

A useful chord progression that compares a common tone diminished with a dominant chord. What do you call that chord?

IG Live: rich crescenti is your mix overworked

I want you to meet Rich Crocenti.

Keboard Skills: thirds and sixths

This may sound boring, but this sounds a lot more exciting.

gate keepers

Producer, professional, beatmaker.

Video thumbnail: When you sign on to go on a roller coaster and they buckle you in that chair, you’re signing up for...

Buckle Up

When you sign on to go on a roller coaster and they buckle you in that chair, you’re signing up for a thrilling ride knowing full well you’re going to be returned back in one piece.

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.

Video thumbnail: If you’re starting to make your own music, there will come a time when you find yourself scratching...

Chord Identification: Introduction

If you’re starting to make your own music, there will come a time when you find yourself scratching your head looking at a bunch of notes and asking what chord is this?

Video thumbnail: The Neapolitan 6th, it’s the first inversion of a b2 chord and it usually resolves to the 5 and...

neapolitan sixth

The Neapolitan 6th, it’s the first inversion of a b2 chord and it usually resolves to the 5 and then back to the 1, generally minor.

Video thumbnail: This shape... It’s really handy. You’ve heard it in countless songs. It’s a 6 to a 2 to a 5 to a 1....

Simple Chords: critical progression

This shape... It’s really handy. You’ve heard it in countless songs. It’s a 6 to a 2 to a 5 to a 1. Look at it in C. It’s an…

The Martini Chord

The seventh is the top note of your chord before it reaches the octave.

Video thumbnail: The EQ in your DAW may have an edge over even some of the most coveted recording discs, but only if...

High Pass Advantage

The EQ in your DAW may have an edge over even some of the most coveted recording discs, but only if you know how to take advantage of it.

polarity and phase

One thing that tends to confuse new engineers is the difference between phase and polarity.

Video thumbnail: Music theory books are filled with more scales than most people know, and certainly more than most...

Tetrachords — Learn 4 Patterns, Build Every Scale and Mode

Music theory books list scales one at a time. Here's the shortcut: every scale is two tetrachords joined end to end. Learn the four types (major, minor, harmonic, Phrygian), and you can build every mode from Ionian to Locrian on the spot. No memorization required.