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T7ES: Gnocci Dokie
(04 Dec 2008 at 13:43) |
 The thing about T7ES music is that it's just the right length of project, like an hour with no stress about scheduling or anything. Obvious that I have to finish it right now, and then it's nice icing to make a album cover for it and think of something clever to put in the lyrics field. Especially when I can finally click again after a week of keyboard-only computing! So here is this week's song, a tune chiamato Gnocci Dokie. There are two things to say about this song. One is the middle quiet wandering 7/4 part right before the melody comes back is not awesome. I know this. I tried my darndest to add something to the stereo sinewaves line that made sense, but I did not darn it enough. Second is that the whole point of this song was to exercise my exceedingly minor theory that guitar players find the chord played with all guitar strings open in standard tuning (EADGBE) to be more pleasing than average, just by virtue of having heard it a lot and reminding them of a nice guitar. (I wonder if they are also attracted to guitar-shaped people more, too?) It is not naturally a nice chord. You can tell from its name, Em7add11. Depends who you ask. I thought there was some common mnemonic (like Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge) for remembering EADGBE but I could not find one, otherwise a reference to that would be the name of the song. Point is I think I get a little titillated when I hear this in the same way that symphonygoers probably feel when the symphoniers are tuning up. This song doesn't use that chord directly because it sounds truly ass, but its main line can be played on the guitar without using any fingers on the left hand. Like this: (high)E, B, G, D, B, D, A, (low)E. If that line makes sense I think you are a guitar player or crazy. If that line does not make sense I think you are not a guitar player or you do not like ear experiments. |  |
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| It may not be epic and awesome, like "Theme from the Goog", but it's still pretty good and pretty good is good enough for me! Also, I like that your singles have cover art now. Even "Theme from rt2i" sort of did. |
| I thought it was something like Ethan Ate Dad's Guitar...something something, but maybe that was just me. |
The EADGBE song I did back in 1992 used an arpeggio in the the rhythm guitar, rather than make it the melody: http://nothings.org/music/nothings/10%20-%20nothing%20stays%20the%20same.mp3
E-B-G-D-G-A-D-G in the main part (slightly different in the harmonics), but even with the sustained arpeggio it's a sequence of chords so it avoids the Em7add11.
Then again I have another "song" which consists of 10 minutes of me jamming on a 12-string guitar with all every other string tuned down a half-step. After you listen to the E-major shape on that over and over, it starts to sound normal...
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| Sounds like my theory is taking hold retroactively!! |
Hey, those opening chords are epic enough for me. I love the (I think I'm hearing this right) picardy third/i -> I thing too.
Also, I can understand that line, but I'm not a guitar player, and I'm having trouble hearing it directly in the song. Does that make me doubly crazy? |
| Oh, and if the proper pronunciation of gnocci is the rhyming one then I have been shaming my ancestors by pronouncing it with an "aw" sound this entire time. |
| Ooo I really like this one. Favorite T7ES since Rutgers! |
A: Thx. I don't understand what people are talking about when they use Roman numerals, but if it sounds like Jean Luc Picard then I'm on the right track!
The lyrics field contains a pronunciation key. Maybe you've been pronouncing dokie wrong?
S: Thanks! This song is sooo different from the jingle feel of Rutgers, so it's good to know I can please with the weird ones too. |
If you don't mind me getting all music theory-y on you for a bit, the roman numerals refer to chords built on respective degrees of the scale, so in e minor, i is e minor, VI is C major, etc. (and uppercase=major, lowercase=minor). The picardy third thing refers to the major third when you use I in in a minor key.
And I can't see the lyrics field in my player, mind giving me the hint? |
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