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Roman Numerals: Why

November 12, 2024 · Beat Kitchen · Music Theory

Music Theory

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Tags: music-theory

Roman numerals in music theory — why we use them.

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Recent Resident Gyms
- THEORY-GYM: Breakdown of the Beatles' She's Leaving Home. Use of B Dorian, implication of different chords and cadences compared to B minor. Use of tension chords- Dominant 7th, Diminished and Sus chords. Analysis of chord and scale tones used in melody.
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: This morning's gym was a keyboard practice exercise that focused on both the drop to voicing and the Barry. Harris diminished bebop scale system. This not only reinforces harmonic thinking within every scale, but cord identification and finger dexterity.
- THEORY-GYM: We explored Strawberry Fields Forever as a deep-dive analysis piece, working through its psychedelic production choices, unusual metric structure, and striking harmonic language — including line clichés, modal interchange, chromatic mediants, chord inversions, and figured bass. I also gave a live walkthrough of the Harmonic Synth tool, demonstrating how it visualizes the harmonic series, partials-based synthesis, and harmonic-aware tuning systems as a companion lens to the theory work.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Production breakdown of Bjork's Army of Me. History of the the Led Zeppelin "Levee Break" drum sample used, analysis of synth sounds, use of Locrian mode, use of chromatic samples in riff.
- THEORY-GYM: We took Marvin Gaye's "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" as a case study in how profound musical joy can emerge from radical simplicity — just three chords, the I, IV, and V in C major. The session dug into the harmonic texture underneath that simplicity: plagal cadences nested inside perfect ones, chord inversions described through figured-bass shorthand (6-4 and 6-3), and a piano technique called triad pairs where two chords alternate up and down the scale in shifting inversions. We also touched on how equal temperament creates a kind of constant low-level motion in tuning — and how that connects, philosophically, to the way harmony itself is never truly "still."
- OFFICE HOURS: Pro Tools import, Varun had questions about getting some files to line up in Pro Tools, we made a new session, got the correct files imported, and then began editing and talked about keyboard short cuts in Pro Tools.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Lateralus by tool
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: Bass - the importance of the right notes, different rhythms, and the different timbres that you can get from the instrument - and how they all can influence how it works with the song.
- OFFICE HOURS: Dewi had an issue with creating AI stems in Logic and we were able to troubleshoot the issue with the file format. Talked with Alee about video editing in DaVinci
- PRODUCTION-GYM: David Bowie - Space oddity: Production, songwriting, and recording. We compared three different versions. The original and Demo from the late 60's, and the remade version from 1979.
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Upcoming Resident Events
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Apr. 06, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Kallie
  Apr. 06, 9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Apr. 06, 9pm (PT) | 12am (ET) | 5am (UK)
- Ear Training: Nathan
  Apr. 07, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Kallie
  Apr. 07, 10am (PT) | 1pm (ET) | 6pm (UK)
- Production Gym: Scott Hampton
  Apr. 07, 5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)
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