Tonal Ambiguity

1 article tagged "Tonal Ambiguity"

Ear Training: Finding Tonic, Hearing Cadences

How to identify the key of a song by ear — and what to listen for when the harmony refuses to sit still.

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Recent Resident Gyms
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: We set out this evening to explore an ear training exercise built around drum-swap comparisons — taking a recognizable song and replacing its original drum track with drums from other songs to hear how groove and texture shape the feel of a piece. Technical audio-sharing issues prevented the planned playback from happening, so the session shifted into open conversation while troubleshooting was attempted. The drum-swap concept and its creative/educational potential were introduced and will be revisited in a future session once the audio routing is sorted out.
- INSTRUMENT-GYM: We explored the intersection of sight-reading, improvisation, and musical fluency, using a jazz standard transcription as a springboard for discussing how to build vocabulary on guitar. Covered the language-learning analogy as a framework for understanding immersion versus structured study, and talked through practical approaches like slowing down transcriptions, playing over chord changes with single chord tones, and using cover projects as vehicles for deep musical study. Discussed how to narrow down long-term goals into short-term actionable targets, and previewed a future jam exercise where we'd work on improvising melody over moving changes.
- OFFICE HOURS: We worked through the Logic Pro signal chain hierarchy — channel strip settings, plugin-level presets, and the lesser-used Performance patch format — clarifying when and why to save at each level. Covered the general philosophy of starting with a blank slate rather than loading full library presets, and discussed field recording as a creative practice including microphone options for capturing real-world ambience.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: We reviewed recent beat submissions this morning and spent time on guitar tone troubleshooting, working through gain staging, signal chain design, and the logic of splitting a pedalboard setup to separate drive/compression from time-based effects. Conversation extended into impedance, preamp character, and the philosophical side of music theory — how chords derive meaning relationally rather than absolutely, and how ear training builds the practical vocabulary to put theory to work.
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered a wide-ranging office hours session this afternoon that touched on server navigation, class placement guidance, music theory pedagogy, and live song feedback. Worked through a student's original song in detail — addressing chord naming, enharmonic spelling, and how a single unresolved voicing choice was affecting the feel of a key moment. Also spent time orienting newer members to how the school's platform works and discussing how to get the most out of available classes and formats.
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through practical signal chain troubleshooting for electric guitar in a DAW environment — covering gain staging from interface input through amp and cabinet modeling, and how to identify where level issues are actually originating. Also touched on a music theory question around tonal gravity and key center, exploring why a chord progression built in A tends to pull toward D when it starts on the IV chord, and what techniques can help establish the intended tonic. Discord audio-sharing and screen-sharing workflows came up briefly as well.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: We used Tom Petty's *Wildflowers* as a production study, comparing the original home demo recordings to the final album to explore what restraint and omission look like as intentional production choices. The central question was: when a song arrives nearly fully formed, what is the producer's job — and why did they choose to leave certain things out? We also touched on the folk and blues traditions of shared musical vocabulary, the placeholder nature of demo sections, and the producer's role in helping an artist gain objectivity on their own work.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: We did a deep-dive breakdown of "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" by Talking Heads, from the 1980 album *Remain in Light*, using Logic Pro's AI stem splitter to pull apart the drums, bass, and "other" elements. The session traced the song's Afrobeat DNA through Fela Kuti and James Brown, examined how the album was recorded (live jamming in the Caribbean, vocals overdubbed separately at Sigma Sound Studios in New York), and used the track as a jumping-off point for discussions about genre, rhythmic feel, copyright, and the creative value of loose, imprecise playing.
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: We worked through a series of ear training exercises covering chord identification (including interval isolation, inversions, and dissonance), tempo recognition, DI vs. amp source identification, LFO waveform recognition by ear, and EQ analysis — specifically distinguishing a high shelf from a high-pass/low-pass cut and estimating its frequency and depth. The through-line across all exercises was the same core skill: isolating individual elements from a complex sound and naming them with increasing precision.
- THEORY-GYM: We took a deep dive into David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" (from *Scary Monsters*, 1980), tracing the song's unusual harmonic journey across multiple tonal centers — A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, and beyond. Rather than a single-key analysis, we mapped out the song's distinct vignettes, each with its own harmonic logic, and examined how Bowie's asymmetric phrasing, modal interchange, and tendency to lead with lyric over convention makes the song almost impossible to fake. We also touched on Tony Visconti's production approach and the value of combining active listening with formal harmonic analysis.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Ear Training: Scott Hampton
  Apr. 16, 5am (PT) | 8am (ET) | 1pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Kallie
  Apr. 16, 2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Kallie
  Apr. 16, 5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Apr. 19, 1pm (PT) | 4pm (ET) | 9pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Scott Hampton
  Apr. 20, 9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)
- Ear Training: Cinnamontal
  Apr. 20, 9pm (PT) | 12am (ET) | 5am (UK)
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
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Tonal Ambiguity

Ear Training: Finding Tonic, Hearing Cadences

Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

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