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Orchestral 1-Day Intensive

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Techniques for arranging and producing orchestral instruments. Includes a 1 month of Beat Kitchen Residency.

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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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Orchestral 1-Day Intensive

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What Students Say

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Great teachers and instruction. I will definitely recommend and am really happy I took the time to attend a class-such valuable and easy to understand concepts and a few radical gems that will blow your mind!

—Valentina, Denver, CO

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Took a lesson over music theory and learned a lot in a short amount of time! Amazing teacher and lots of great information!

—J4de

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Took a class recently with Nathan and he’s a fantastic instructor. His kindness, openness to questions, and knowledge of music is truly phenomenal. I highly recommend this school for anyone who wants to be a great music producer!

—J, Brooklyn, NY

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Recently took a couple of classes - Effects, Synthesis and Mixing primer and the Beat Building Jam. Both classes were really good. Ended up learning a lot of basics of how sound design and shaping works in the first one and a bunch of

—Hardik, Seattle, WA

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I loved the class I took on music theory. I am a theory nerd, and a music teacher since 2008. I got new insights in this class about things I had learned before. I also thought Nathan did a great job of establishing basic ideas before using

—Jon, Seattle, WA

Course Level: Workshops

Extras

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Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

Beat Ktichen Calendar

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Recent Resident Gyms
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Worked through a reference-track deconstruction and production rebuild exercise, identifying the key sonic elements of a moody, low-register chord-based track and then reconstructing an approximation in Logic Pro. Covered chord voicing for low-register "growl," bass sound design using electric piano and synthesis, drum processing with compression and reverb, and vintage EQ (Pultec-style) for tonal shaping. Also touched on session organization, gain staging, and routing strategy during the build.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed a submitted ambient/drone track by Jon, focusing on the composition and production techniques behind it — specifically the use of a modulated Vital synth patch, a Mellotron plugin for choir-style chords, a flute element, and a Digitalis plugin for bit-crush and formant-shift effects. Discussed how the Vital patch is structured around a single slowly-increasing parameter modulating all other parameters over the course of the track. The track is full-length and release-ready.
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered mix feedback and hands-on low-end mixing technique in this office hours session. Worked through frequency balance, kick/bass separation using the boost-and-scoop method, saturation for transient punch, vocal stacking EQ issues, and ear fatigue from monitoring too loud. Also addressed song structure and intro length as it relates to listener retention.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed submitted beats and in-progress recordings from several students, including a kazoo-based field recording piece and a folk song arrangement using power sanders as a drone instrument. Covered DAW workflow techniques in Logic, including bounce-in-place methods, mono/stereo conversion, and the distinction between Logic's Join commands. Discussed using Match EQ with white noise as a frequency-balancing tool in the mix process.
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through the internal architecture of the Harmonic Synth, specifically routing a sidechain input to enable live re-synthesis and vocoder-style effects. Demonstrated the freeze-point scrubbing concept using a poly LFO, explored pitch bend as a high-resolution alternative to mod wheel for scrubbing, and discussed the broader application of nonlinear audio playback — scripting playback position changes that are typically only possible in a sampler. Also discussed a forthcoming songwriting incubator session planned for Wednesdays starting around the 12th, two hours earlier than the previous iteration.
- INSTRUMENT-GYM: Worked through the BK Harmonic synthesizer as an expressive instrument, exploring its core architecture — partials, overtone scan, tuning modes, and the partials matrix — with live hands-on walkthroughs for attending students. Covered just intonation versus equal temperament as implemented in the plugin, and demonstrated how to route MIDI modulation (pitch bend) to control the number of active partials as an expressive performance parameter.
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: We worked through a high-difficulty chord identification exercise using an ear training app, analyzing a complex chord that turned out to be an E-flat major 7 (with a 9) in first inversion. The exercise surfaced the distinction between hearing a chord functionally versus hearing its explicit voicing and intervals, and illustrated how spread voicings can mask the intervals your brain already recognizes. Multiple guesses were worked through collectively before arriving at the answer.
- THEORY-GYM: Covered the minor 6 chord — what it is, how it functions, and where it naturally appears in a key — using Matthew Wilder's "Ain't Nothin' Gonna Break My Stride" as the primary study subject. Demonstrated how the song's verse is built around an Eb minor 6 chord functioning as a minor iv resolving to I (in Bb), showed the equivalence between a minor 6 chord and a minor 7 flat 5 (half-diminished) in root position, and traced the song's series of key changes through the verse, chorus, and bridge. Also introduced the reggae rhythmic feel by contrasting a standard downbeat-driven bass/chord pattern with the upbeat-focused "one drop" skank pattern.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: We spent this morning's Production Gym on an active listening session dedicated to Björk, prompted by a recent encounter with a music professional who had never heard of her. We worked through three songs — "Pagan Poetry," and "Unravel," and a recent Björk/Rosalía collaboration — analyzing mixing decisions, vocal production, drum programming, reverb use, no pitch correction, automation, and stereo field placement as they appeared in each track. The session also opened into a group discussion about music history literacy as a foundational skill for producers.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Weekly Beat Challenge — 1276 words across 2 speakers (21 wpm). Insufficient instructional content for a summary.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Aug. 12,
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Aug. 12,
- Office Hours: Scott Hampton
  Aug. 13,
- Office Hours: Jon Mattox
  Aug. 13,
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Aug. 16,
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Aug. 17,
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Courses
- Aug 19, 2026 Songwriting Incubator
- Sep 01, 2026 Comprehensive Program
- Sep 1, 2026 DAW Core Skills
- Sep 21, 2026 Beat Building Jam
- Oct 6, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Oct 21, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- Nov 10, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- Nov 29, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
See All Courses
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