Sunday, January 24, 2016

"Andromeda Weeps" to Know Her Chords

Anything which starts on F# sus 2 is heading for weird but we like that ... and have done for years.  The song is one I wrote in the eighties.  In all that time, I did not know what the chords were, I just play them.  There was no need because Ophir knew what I was playing just from hearing it and The Freezebirds were only doing cover songs so I only played it with him.

Note:  I'm not much given to nostalgia but those jams with Ophir were a huge turning point in my life.  He was a fo' real College Conservatory of Music graduate and he actually took my music seriously.


There's an intro bit which goes F# sus 2 - Db minor and G# sus 2 - B x2

Bridge to the main bit:  B - C# minor

Main bit:

C# minor - B - A
Ab - Db minor
F# - Ab - A - B - C# minor
x2

Bridge back:

B - C# minor - B2 - D - B1 - Db minor

Note:  in all those years, I never wrote down the chords before (larfs).  I'll have to verify them but I think they're right.


There is a problem since there are four bits but a loop can be a maximum of three phrases.  It's no problem for a loop to be as long as I like up until it runs out of memory in the looper but there is a fixed limit to the number of individual phrases within it.

(Ed:  is this more of the poseur composer bulldozer??)

Yep, more of that.

So how about if the first phrase is the entire song and the looper can handle that just fine.

The intro bit is one part which can expand and that goes dream world for a reflective, expansive vibe. That could go right back to the top of the main song so this could be phrase two.

The main bit is the punch 'em in the mouth and run away part even though that has nothing to do with the meaning of it.  This part rocks hard and it's fine playing lead lines over the whole thing but the other thought is to make an extract which becomes the third phrase and that specifically for guitarturbation at high speed.

(Ed:  does 'guitarturbation' mean what I think it means?)

Yes.  But we do it shamelessly because we figure if you can play fast then fucking do it and if people want to call it jerking off then just chuck 'em a Kleenex.

The real problem is getting into this guitarturbation bit.  There's a little problem getting into the intro bit but not much since it can cut away right at the top but there's no exit point for the guitarturbation phrase ... whoops ... unless ... unless I stop the main loop and restart with the third phrase.

That sounds mighty clunky.


(Ed:  is writing down the chords supposed to impress?)

No.  The song needs to be recorded with multiple instruments and I can't play the chords on the synth if I don't know what they are.  I can play along by sound but that doesn't get anything structural recorded.

(Ed:  what happened to "The Sanctuary Song?")

Nothing but waking up at two in the morning wasn't the best plan for recording it.  There really wasn't a plan but I thought, wtf, I'm awake so what's to do.  Yevette's schedule is highly unpredictable too and she just crashed so recording is out.  She said it's ok to play but I would be an asshole to do it.  There's no possible chance she could sleep through the noise, smoke, lights, blah de blah.


Note:  now that strings are changed, re-program the lasers for new patterns.  Programming them is a huge hassle until you get started with it and then it's still a huge hassle but you can see the colors and that feeds doing it.

The way you do program them is by pushing about eight sliders up or down to control various parameters for the display via the control console.  Some are mundane and may move the pattern to the left / right or up / down and others control speed, etc.  It's the ones which change the pattern which are entertaining and that's where you discover what the device can do.

Programming it sounds like it may involve numbers and/or computer screens but actually it's much cooler than that.  Maybe it would be ok to tell them to go full random and just fire whatever they like for absolute chaos.

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