The Air Up There

Posted January 30th, 2006 by Sean Williams

This show is a little bit harder than the last two, and the ways in which it is more difficult are kinda interesting to me.

First of all, this show is gonna be entirely guitar based, and that lends to some complications. The guitar is a lot like the piano in that everyone thinks they can play it, but almost no-one can play it well. On “Lost” last week, that hobbit dude played piano in that wretched way that non-pianist play, with fingers rigid, sticking up and wrists collapsed. I should know, I’m a terrible pianist.

But the guitar is unlike the piano in that there are keys and positions that lend themselves to the guitar, and there are keys that are just really hard. The flat keys are much harder to play on the guitar, to play in Eb or Bb is tough compared to playing in E or A (which are both sharp keys).

What that means is that we will have less, or actually *no* flexibility when it comes to casting the vocal parts. The singer is gonna have to be able to sing the song that I wrote.

But that’s not what makes it harder on me. The difficulty is that this show is gonna be have to have several flat out rock songs, and those songs are far less complicated than the songs I wrote for Fleet Week. This also means they are way more naked. I tend to lean on false cadences when I get the chance, I will set up patterns and then move keys and stuff, just to keep the music active.

Think of the song “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner. Or “Girls, Girls, Girls” by Motley Crue. I mean, it’s amazing to me that I’m writing a show that borrows heavily from 80s pop music, but it isn’t the Cure or The Smiths, it’s “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult.

Plus, as you loyal readers saw yesterday, we’re trying to get our house finished in time for the inspection on the re-fi. It’s a helluva day at sea, sir.

I took this picture and sent it to my family because they all, collectively, got me everything you see here. The only things I bought myself were the electric guitar and the desk, and both of those were back in ’93. On MTV’s Cribs, the bedroom is always introduced as “where the magic happens” and the home studio is always like “yeah, I had this built.”

Fuckers. I’m willing to bet that the bedroom is mostly just sex, sleeping and watching TV, that’s all that happens in my bedroom. If I had a home studio…

One of these days, baby. Fluff and Fold.