I composed this song to express what I imagined would be the feeling of overwhelming dread that weighs heavy on too many people who have regrets when they realize the finality of death. Other listeners may interpret the mood of the song differently and their unique opinion of it is fine with me.
It begins with the sound of thunder and a melodic theme often associated with horror played on a church organ. The electric lead guitar enters to climb the tones of the organ's diminished chord which is followed by a melody through major and minor chords to continue to rise up to the sustained high C note then slides down to the open E of the first string and a rise up the sixth string to sustain on the twelfth fret.
After this the drums and bass begin a recurring 12 bar blues harmonic pattern while the lead guitar plays a riff that is used to divide the sections of the song. Following this the lead guitar plays a melodic pattern that is repeated downward in Em then Am then again in Em to close with a climb back up in B7 then Am to finish in another downward melodic line in Em. To conlude this section the lead guitar and the bass double a recurring riff on the tenth position to end the introduction.
In the next section the "12 bar blues" harmonic sequence continues more prominately as a rhythm section and so the lead guitar sound is changed into a rhythm guitar sound by a pickup switch on the MichaelKelly Hybrid Special guitar and a tone channel change on the Katana MKII amp via a foot pedal. The rhythm section features a small lead enhancement at its conclusion. Then the section dividing theme is played by the lead guitar which has been switched back on the guitar and the amp.
After this, a break from the "12 bar blues" harmonic sequential pattern characterized by four beats per measure is changed to six beats per measure and a new chord pattern of Em to C to Am to Em then repeated. To avoid redundancy no them between the sections permits the lead to begin a new melodic theme in the former harmonic sequential pattern of the "12 bar blues."
Finally, the section dividing theme is played and sustained until it dies away so that the thunder can again be heard. After a few rumbles the lead guitar plays a fast scale of notes from the twelfth fret of the first string down to the open sixth string while the sound of a Medieval castle door is slammed shut.
The beauty of composing my own music is that I can eliminate the track that I want to play live and so make what is left to be an accompaniment background track. I load these tracks on to my Boss RC-500 looper pedal so that I can scroll through my tracks with a Boss foot pedal.
The down side of composing my own music is that it may actually be only attractive to me as I float in the clouds of my "visions of grandeur" all the while unaware that my audience may be desperately reaching for the "next" button.
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Click to stream Parousia.
Parousia
Parousia
Festival in Statesboro, GA on 10/23/21. I consider most of my music to be cheerful and I needed to perform some songs that were more frightful.
The original version of this song was all recorded from my Roland Fantom G8 keyboard. I updated it without the lead guitar part so that I could use it as an accompaniment to my guitar playing at the "Scare in the Square" Halloween
Switching the guitar lead from keyboard to an actual guitar was a real challenge.
