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Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

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Recent Resident Gyms
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed two student beats this week — one from Mark and one from John — with feedback focused on drum programming vocabulary, section development, and how drum parts can drive arrangement evolution. Also demoed a custom-sampled piano instrument built from Nathan's own studio piano, discussing its architecture, velocity layering, neighbor-swapping for machine-gun prevention, and a Claude-assisted EXS mapping workflow.
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through a chord analysis discovery on Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," demonstrating that the chord widely charted as a half-diminished chord is actually a minor sixth chord — verified by splitting stems and identifying a C-sharp in the piano part. Also covered setting up multiple audio interfaces simultaneously on Mac using Audio MIDI Setup and Aggregate Devices. A question about sampling permissions and copyright came up, with practical discussion of how to handle dialogue samples from broadcast media.
- THEORY-GYM: We worked through the harmony of Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," using it as a vehicle for exploring gospel and churchy chord voicings, figured bass notation, diminished chord function, modal interchange, and chromatic bass motion. Topics included the cadential 6-4, common-tone diminished chords, suspended chords (including the "super sus" voicing), and chromatic bass lines moving through borrowed chords to pivot between keys. The bridge was identified as particularly complex and was not fully analyzed in the available time.
- THEORY-GYM: We worked through the chord progressions of "Black Hole Sun" (Soundgarden) to examine how notoriously unusual chords function in context. Key topics included major/minor ambiguity, polychords, anchor notes in melody, tritone substitutions, and modal interchange — using the song as a vehicle to explain how these devices operate whether or not the songwriter named them. We also touched briefly on how power chords (open fifths) reveal harmonic structure by removing the third from the equation.
- THEORY-GYM: Worked through the chord changes to "Sweet Lorraine" (B♭ jazz standard), mapping the full A-section progression and identifying the harmonic devices that create its characteristic chromatic motion — including secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, diminished passing chords, and the use of the iii chord as a stand-in for the I. Also addressed left-hand piano voicing technique: how shells (thirds and sevenths), tenths, and the "drop assassination" vs. "sneak attack" approach connect directly to the voice leading inside those changes.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed a hip-hop track built around stutter edits and an Aretha Franklin piano sample, with discussion of lo-fi authenticity, kitsch production aesthetics, and how to commit to a retro sound without tipping into parody. Explored stutter-editing techniques in Logic Pro — including the Beat Breaker plugin and manual cut-based approaches — and compared them to a buffer override plugin used by one of the students. Also searched Logic Pro's legacy instrument library for a Farfisa organ sound to illustrate a tonal direction for a separate piece in progress.
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered lead sheet and chart-writing fundamentals — including form notation, repeat signs, segno/coda navigation, and fitting a full arrangement onto a single page — using a Michelle (Beatles/jazz standard) chart as a worked example. Discussed drum kit curation workflows in Logic Pro, specifically how to audition and assemble multiple kits before committing sounds to Drum Machine Designer. Also ran a live vocal review session, listening for pitch offenses in two harmony parts drawn from a live dress rehearsal recording.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Covered guitar reverb gating techniques, including sidechaining and region-based approaches for controlling reverb tails in performance and post-production contexts. Worked through Logic Pro flex pitch and audio quantization workflows, with a focus on how to isolate regions before applying flex to avoid unintended timing drift. Also examined the lead sheet for the Beatles' "Michelle" — its chord content, key ambiguity, and the form notation (D.S. al Coda, repeat signs, segno) required to navigate it on a single page.
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through a song revision with Christian, focusing on song structure, melodic differentiation between sections, harmonic rhythm, and the "cotter pin" problem — the moment where a pre-chorus and chorus share nearly identical chord progressions and melodic contours, making the transition between them feel stagnant rather than like a lift. Also covered a Logic Pro SMPTE-lock technique for safely halving tempo without displacing regions, and addressed a mixer visibility bug.
- THEORY-GYM: We explored the jazz "real book" tradition — the corpus of standards, show tunes, and select pop songs that jazz musicians have historically drawn from — and examined why certain non-jazz songs earn a place in that lexicon. Using Michelle (Beatles), Yesterday (Beatles), and a Stevie Wonder song as case studies, we analyzed what harmonic features make a song attractive to jazz interpretation: four-note chord voicings, two-five-one progressions, stand-ins and substitutions for the five chord, and the absence of a dominant chorus structure. We also walked through how to read a lead sheet, including repeat signs, codas, and D.S. al Coda navigation.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Oct. 25,
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Oct. 26,
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Oct. 26,
- Ear Training: Nathan
  Oct. 26,
- Production Gym: Scott Hampton
  Oct. 27,
- Office Hours: Kallie
  Oct. 27,
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Courses
- Nov 7, 2026 Logic Pro 1-Day Intensive
- Nov 10, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- Nov 18, 2026 Mix Incubator
- Nov 25, 2026 Production Incubator
- Nov 29, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- Jan 5, 2027 Recording Incubator
- Jan 19, 2027 Synthesist
- Jan 27, 2027 Vocal Kitchen
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