“Hey, what are you up to on this cold, snowy afternoon."
“Well, I’m unemployed and sitting in my apartment, playing the piano.” “I’m unemployed, sitting at home playing my bass.” “You want to work on one of those songs you’ve been writing?” “Sure, I can be there in about 20 minutes or so. I just have to pack my up gear and I’ll head on over.” “Cool, I will see you soon, sir.” “Sounds good.” After I packed up my equipment, I grabbed my coat and hat, and opened the front door. The cold winter struck my face with that crisp, humid air you only find on the east coast that will make your nose run before you even get to your car. I put my bass, gear bag and amp in the trunk of my ’92 Mustang. As I turned the car on, I braced my hands to grab the frigid steering wheel. By the time I got to Mike’s place and turned the car off, the car was just starting to get warm. As I opened the front door to Mike’s apartment complex, the door was heavier than I realized and it banged into my bass I was carrying over my shoulder and my amp smacked into the door jam. The carpet of the stair case was this beat up, faded purple color that hasn’t been replaced in about twenty years. It was an old building that probably used to be a house, and was divided up into apartment units on each floor. You could tell, because the balusters in the stairwell were hand made of wood and painted white a long time ago. You don’t see that kind of craftsmanship anymore. The white paint was faded on the walls, as well; almost to a faint yellow and dinged up from people moving furniture in and out of the hallway every lease season. As I made my way up to the third floor, the fresh air that rushed in when I opened the door faded and this musky smell became more prominent each floor I went up. I knocked on the door. “Hello, sir. How’s it going?” “Good, where should I put my stuff? Mike’s apartment was an open one bedroom with a kitchen and bathroom. He had a love seat in front of the bed to watch movies and play video games. His piano was in the corner, facing the wall on the far side of the bed. The apartment had these nice angled ceilings, because he was on the top floor of the building; more unique architecture you only see in an old town. “Why don’t you set up over here.” “Cool, I guess I’ll just sit on the corner of the bed?” “Yeah, what ever works for you.” Mike started playing some scales while I set up my equipment. “So, what did you want to work on?” “I have a couple of songs. Do you just want me to play one or two; do you want the chords and structure?” “No, just play one so I can hear what you are going for.” “Ok.” I played the first tune up until the bridge and stopped. “That’s the first half of that one.” “What do you call it?” “Medieval Evil.” “Nice, very cool. So, what do you want the piano to do?” “Well, since it is composed on the bass, I’m thinking your left hand can be pretty free to do something different, since I already have your left hand covered.” “Yeah, I could do some counter point, or just play chords over the top of it. Did you have any idea for a melody?” “Not really, I mean, there is a melody built into the chords that we can work off of, but I kind of want you to just come up with what ever you’re hearing, and we’ll just try different ideas until we find things that stick and go from there.” “Ok, we can do that.” After working on the tune for an hour or so, we stepped out onto Mike’s fire escape out of the window for a cigarette. "So, what do you think; would you like to work on a couple of these and see how it goes.” “Yeah, I’ve never worked on songs that were composed on a bass; it’s really interesting. I have so much more freedom to play around with different ideas.” “Cool, I think that was a good first session. So, uh, do you have your resume out?” “Yeah, I’m networking and seeing what’s out there and I have it up online, too.” “Yeah, same here. I don’t have much of a network though, so I just have mine up on the internet. Do you want to meet up a couple days a week while we’re not working and see how much we can get done?” “Sure, who knows how long we’ll have, so let’s take advantage of it.” “Cool, one thing is for sure, though. We both need to get a job.” |
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