Theory Gym
Weekly. Morning music theory workout. Included with residency.
Start your day at the gym with a morning music theory workout. Scales, chords, intervals, ear training exercises, and guided practice with fellow residents.
Upcoming Sessions
Recent Sessions
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We used "Our House" by Madness as a lens for analyzing a single recurring chord progression — one chord, one minor five, one minor two, one minor four — and examined how the band built an entire multi-section song from it. We also listened to a second track as a comparison piece, tracing similar techniques: modal borrowing, distant modulations, and fragmentary quoting of familiar progressions broken before resolution.
All resident events are included with your Beat Kitchen Residency.
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