Being Steven: its a zen thing.
Written for son Steven on his sixteenth birthday.
Steve wanted a song with loads of 60s and 70s stuff in it so this is what started it off. There is a bit of Cream, a famous Deep Purple riff, and even some Stones buried away somewhere.
This would be a great song to play live as you can use the verse and chorus as wrappers for as many old rockers as you want.
It could even be used for a 20-minute guitar solo extravaganza. Bliss!
There are three key changes in the piece (two is never enough). The chorus starts innocuously enough with just two chords, Dm7 and G9, but there is some ambiguity about the key
The key cannot be D minor. Dm-G is not possible because a i-IV chord change cannot occur in a minor key. Nor can the key be G major, because v-I is not possible in a major key. One possible candidate is the key of C in which Dm-G, ii-V, is OK. Or even the key of A minor, in which iv-VII is OK. However, neither C nor A sound much like tonic notes. D is a much stronger candidate for the tonic even though the key is neither major or minor. The solution is to use a mode instead. D dorian fits the bill nicely, and the key change, Dm-G, i-IV, now makes perfect sense.
The chorus in D dorian modulates to the key of E major in the verse, and, to round it all off, the 60s and 70s stuff modulates to the key of C# major.
The main verse is in E using two chords: an E7 and this unknown chord.
It looks like a hybrid D or A chord at first sight. One online chord analyser programme actually clocks it as an Amaj7add11. That is good enough for me.
Title: Stevenzen
Key: E
Tempo: 144bpm
Length: 4' 22"
Track 1: calliope melody
Track 2: tuba harmony
Track 3: grand piano
Track 4: nylon guitar
Track 5: overdrive guitar
Track 6: distortion guitar
Track 7: acoustic bass
Track 8: fretless bass
Track 9: drumset
Genre: pop, rock
