Ear Training
Weekly. Test your ears and discuss — music, mixing, and more. Included with residency.
Test your ears and discuss — music, mixing, and more. Interactive listening exercises with fellow residents to sharpen your critical listening skills.
Upcoming Sessions
- May 19 5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK) Jam Phelps
- May 26 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK) Nathan
Recent Sessions
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Covered the difference between saturation and distortion, with live demonstrations on kick drum, bass, and vocals using the Abbey Road Saturator and a virtual guitar amp. Worked through multi-stage compression on a vocal chain — three compressors in sequence for peak reduction and makeup gain — and explained why reverb belongs on an auxiliary bus rather than directly on a track, including how to EQ and automate the reverb tail independently. Also addressed gain staging, headroom management, microphone selection for noisy rooms, and tracking levels for vocals.
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"The Rose," open 5ths, Pedal tone scale degree 5 becomes 3rd of iii, becomes 9 of IV, becomes 1 of V, etc. iii - IV progression in "The Rose" and James Horner's "If We Hold on Together." Listening to inner voices— Am is one note away from FM7—7th in inner voice in "The Rose."
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We explored ear training through deep listening to a single contemporary R&B track, using it as a lens for examining background vocals as independent instruments, arrangement and layering strategy, mix placement and reverb use, vocal delivery and articulation, and song form. The session was open dialogue throughout — students brought their own observations and we used them to go deeper into production craft, melody writing over static harmony, and how a song's emotional arc can be built through stacking and restraint rather than harmonic movement.
All resident events are included with your Beat Kitchen Residency.
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