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Hip Hop Kitchen

Hip Hop Served Up Here

In this course learn how to create unique beats for your tracks. Instructors will cover basic structure, sound design, and mixing techniques for producing artist-ready beats. Having a collection of personally crafted beats gives any artist a powerful toolbox useful in a variety of situations

Key Topics

Hip Hop served up here.

Kitchens are where beat-makers get their hands dirty. It’s where creatives go to play with their food.

In this course learn how to create unique beats for your tracks. Instructors will cover basic structure, sound design, and mixing techniques for producing artist-ready beats. Having a collection of personally crafted beats gives any artist a powerful toolbox useful in a variety of situations.

Key Topics:

Looping
Sequencing
Mixing Electronic Instruments
Hooks
Designing Drums
Vocal FX
Sample Organization and Maintenance
Hardware Samplers
Pre-Mixing Beats For Studio Sessions

Prerequisites: DAW Core Skills or equivalent proficiency in your platform.

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What students say

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The class dynamic of instruction is extraordinary for beginners and experienced people within music. The classes are small and the interaction between students and the instructor is great. You get to ask as many questions as you like and

—Mercedes, San Jose, CA

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This was an awesome music theory fundamentals class. Nathan was a very thoughtful, thorough teacher who offered up time and energy outside of class to help his students in a myriad of ways from answering questions to providing feedback on

—Lizzie, New York, NY

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Nathan is Very knowledgeable and passionate about music. he has a ton of experience as an engineer and producer he plays piano and understands all the notes logic pro that is what i will be doing next. .looking forward to the classes

—Don, Vancouver, BC

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Great resource! Super friendly! I’ll continue to check out Beat Kitchen offerings.

—Sam, Los Angeles, CA

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One of a kind. Precious and deeply conscious teaching and learning exchange. Recommended to all who wonder about the mysteries of the universe <3

—Alix, Berlin, Germany

Explore Classes

Office Hours Weekly. Ask questions, get help, and connect. Included with residency. Production Gym Weekly. Production breakdown of your favorite songs. Included with residency. Theory Gym Weekly. Morning music theory workout. Included with residency. Ear Training Weekly. Test your ears and discuss — music, mixing, and more. Included with residency. Instrument Gym Weekly. Practice and workout on instruments. Included with residency. Weekly Beat Review Weekly. Listen to Beat Challenge song ideas together. Included with residency.

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Beat Building Jam Workshop ideas into songs. Peer feedback. Instructor support. Prep for production Mix Incubator Your lab for carrying a track across the finish line — the forcing function that turns a produced or recorded song into … Production Incubator Your lab for turning a song into a finished production — the forcing function that leaves you with a track ready for the … Recording Incubator Your lab for capturing real performances of your song — the forcing function that leaves you with recordings ready for … Songwriting Incubator Your lab for getting a song started and out the door — the forcing function that leaves you with a draft ready for the …

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Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

Beat Ktichen Calendar

See the full calendar
Recent Resident Gyms
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered bass guitar EQ fundamentals, including the counterintuitive principle of boosting highs and cutting lows to help bass cut through a mix. Discussed tape emulation in mastering, specifically the Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machine and its use as a subtle glue and saturation tool.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed two submitted works this morning: Paul's "Driftwood," an atmospheric guitar-based piece processed through layered filter effects, and Josephine's newly written vocal-piano song. Discussion centered on restraint in production — specifically, the risk of overproducing early-stage material before the songwriter has fully lived with it. Nathan performed a brief section of Randy Newman's "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today" as a reference point for how orchestral arrangement can serve a simple song without obscuring it, and credited the orchestral arrangement to Van Dyke Parks. A technical thread with Jon on rhythmic displacement and MIDI tempo-slowing techniques rounded out the session, along with a brief discussion on vinyl mastering and audio-video sync.
- THEORY-GYM: We covered the Barry Harris bebop diminished scale approach as an alternative to modal thinking, specifically the technique of inserting a chromatic passing tone (a minor sixth, or A-flat in the key of C) into a major scale to create an eight-note scale. From that scale, we built tetrad-based triad pairs — stepping through C6, D diminished, and related chords by stacking every other note — and explored how that voice leading naturally implies functional harmony, including five chords and diminished substitutions. We also touched on the philosophical distinction between modal and functional harmonic thinking, using Barry Harris's critique of modes as a framing device.
- THEORY-GYM: We analyzed "Just the Two of Us" (Bill Withers / Grover Washington Jr.) as a vehicle for understanding tritone substitution, secondary dominants, the two-five-one motion as a pivot into the subdominant, and passing chords. The chord progression — identical between verse and chorus — was worked through in the key of C for clarity, with the key bass motion and chromatic inner voice movement identified. We closed by building a set of extended chord voicings (minor 9, minor 7, dominant 13) derived from the song's chromatic passing sequence, with the A minor → A♭ minor → G minor 7 → C pattern as a practical keyboard exercise.
- INSTRUMENT-GYM: Covered the Barry Harris sixth diminished (octatonic) scale — a standard C major scale with an added flat-six (A♭) — and worked through its modes, harmonic implications, and four-voice chord stacks built from it. Demonstrated how stacking thirds through the scale produces a cycle of chords (C6, D minor7♭5, A minor7, F diminished) that embed diminished motion and ii–V–I harmonic logic without explicit chord changes. Practiced the scale ascending from each degree and explored its relationship to dominant chords, diminished chords, and the circle of fourths.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: We reviewed beats submitted by three students, working through syncopation and rhythmic contrast, harmonic clashes and chord voicing, and guitar tone and recording workflow. Each piece got individualized feedback, and we pulled out broader production principles around ostinato, juxtaposition of rhythmic elements, and the mechanics of committing to a sound while building.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed two submitted pieces this morning — a cassette-recorded rap by Jon and an anxiety-themed instrumental by Alessandra. Feedback centered on rhythmic phrasing, rhyme placement, melodic theme development, the use of stereo space, and the creative and practical tradeoffs of committing to a lo-fi cassette recording workflow.
- THEORY-GYM: We worked through the harmonic structure of "Maneater" (Hall & Oates), tracing a chromatic descending bass line through the chorus and identifying the chords that wrap around it — including a first-inversion five chord, a flat-seven major chord, and a secondary dominant functioning as the five of two. The session also covered the Picardy third that appears at the end of the song's A-section, how diminished chords function as rootless dominant seventh chords, and what a line cliché looks like in practice. Ear-training work ran throughout: participants sang and voted on bass motion (up/down, half step/whole step/jump) before identifying chords.
- THEORY-GYM: Covered the harmonic series as the origin of the diatonic scale, then explored what happens when you construct a scale by descending through circle-of-fifths logic rather than ascending — arriving at the Phrygian mode as a "south-facing" mirror of the standard Ionian construction. Used that framework to reframe negative harmony: less as a direct chord-mirroring trick and more as a way to locate distant harmonic colors, particularly the leading-tone relationship in descending scalar motion. Also touched on the Dorian mode as a palindrome (W-H-W-W-W-H-W), tetrachord construction as a tool for building and comparing scales, and briefly demonstrated an online scale/chord reference tool. A chord matrix Josephine had built was reviewed and discussed.
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered mastering fundamentals in an office hours context, including peak limiting, LUFS targets, loudness matching across an album, and multiband compression for mid-side and frequency-specific control. Also worked through a specific guitar rhythm challenge — the train beat feel — with Alee, demonstrating how the upstroke placement on beats two and four creates the characteristic gallop pattern, and discussed drum recording pass-by-pass versus full-kit capture. Additional topics included ear health, hearing protection, tape saturation plugins, and professional portfolio practices for mix and mastering engineers.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Sep. 20,
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Sep. 21,
- Office Hours: Cato Zane
  Sep. 21,
- Ear Training: Nathan
  Sep. 21,
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Sep. 22,
- Office Hours: Cato Zane
  Sep. 22,
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Courses
- Apr 19, 2026 Theory: Musician Basics
- Apr 22, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- Apr 27, 2026 DAW Core Skills
- Apr 27, 2026 FL Studio
- May 23, 2026 Logic Pro 1-Day Intensive
- Jun 10, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jul 8, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jul 12, 2026 DAW Core Skills
See All Courses
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