Video thumbnail: Yesterday in class one of the students brought in a sweet Thundercat song called Dragon Ball Durag...

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Thundercat Chords

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Theory Gym

Date: July 6, 2022
Author: Beat Kitchen
Category: Songwriting

Yesterday in class one of the students brought in a sweet Thundercat song called Dragon Ball Durag and it’s a great example of chords that are just stacked in thirds moving right up through the diatonic scale. So I threw it to C and I’m gonna put it on the board. Let’s take a look.

Tags: chords, music-theory, recording, songwriting

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- OFFICE HOURS: We explored how to build emotional tension in songwriting without relying on additional chords, lyrics, or volume, covering the full range of musical tools available — melody, rhythm, arrangement, orchestration, and performance. We also dug into synthesis options beyond subtractive synthesis, including wavetable and FM, and spent time on meter and feel, particularly triple and compound meters like 6/8 and how changing meter can completely transform a piece. The session was wide-ranging and idea-focused, drawing on examples from Depeche Mode, Lana Del Rey, Eminem, and "Fly Me to the Moon."
- OFFICE HOURS: We talked about the "Abbey Road Reverb Trick", which is basically cutting the lows and highs of a reverb send or return. You can additionally boost or cut additional frequencies to create space in the mix, or highlight something you want to in the mix. We looked at examples from a singer/songwriter project, and talked about how to approach the philosophy rather than using the same numbers in the EQ each time.
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- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: An ear training session built around a deceptively simple but challenging exercise: generating random chord progressions and attempting to conceptualize how they sound — including identifying a likely key — before playing them. Using an online chord generator tool (shared via the Discord chat), the session explored multiple progressions, each presenting its own puzzle around key identification and harmonic context.
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- PRODUCTION-GYM: We talked about Smashing Pumpkins 1993 track, Cherub Rock. Analysis of mix, arrangement, production choices, and contextual production process to current production methods. We also discussed the importance and impact of pre-production on this track and on students own projects and processes.
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