Thoughts in B-flat

November 23, 2016 11:29 PM

In the past couple of weeks, I found myself going back to a piece that I'd started working on a few years ago -- probably because it's in a slower triple meter that's somewhat calming for me. This is a condensed one-minute version, featuring piano and guitar, for the 60 Seconds and Under #2 MeFi Music Challenge.

This version is actually a smidgen faster than the tempo I usually play, in order to fit in all the measures I wanted into a minute.

I'd already written the guitar part a long time ago, so I recorded basically the intro of the piece on guitar and was about to submit it by itself. Then a few days later, I worked up a separate melody and picked it out on a borrowed digital piano. (I'm not a pianist and it's been over 15 years since I practiced any tune on a piano, so I kept it simple.)

I'm always wary of subconsciously channeling another song out there, so if this sounds like something else, I'd love to know.

posted by rangefinder 1.4 (3 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

I don't feel like it borrows from any particular tune; rather, it sounds like an old-school, lazy-country-river type of song (even though it's only a minute, it's a sleepy minute). A song which could fit many different well-known artist's repertoires – but which you could also hear being played during a talent show at your local dance hall. So:

Channeling? Yes.
A particular artist or song? No.
A wide, broad-ranging genre, then? Maybe kinda.

A GOOD SONG? YES! I liked it. Nice melody, has depth of feeling. subtle dynamics, and a complicated but not challenging chord progression. You also have a nice touch on the piano – it's not how many notes you play, it's the way that you play them.
posted by not_on_display at 10:06 PM on November 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thanks for the kind words, not_on_display! Especially about the piano playing. I like a lot of different music genres but yeah, thanks to my folks I've heard a fair share of country songs from the "Nashville sound" era, especially with Floyd Cramer and/or produced by Chet Atkins. This is probably the most country-sounding melody I've done so far.

I'm glad it didn't sound like any particular song or artist, and I'm really pleased you enjoyed the song.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 9:21 PM on November 25, 2016


There's a feeling of familiarity to the lilt of the piano melody, but like not_on_display I don't find it pegging any particular tune for me—I think it's just hitting the feeling of that kind of song, that gentle in-three piano sound out of something pastoral and warm. It's very pretty.
posted by cortex at 11:06 AM on November 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


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