inessential by Brent Simmons

Slow House

“Slow House,” song #3, is more exercise than song. Where most songs have a structure like ABAB or ABACAB or whatever, this one is just A. Not even AAA — just A.

I wanted to get some practice recording an acoustic guitar — it’s the first GarageBand thing I’ve done where one of the parts was from a mic (a Yeti Blue). (All the previous parts are via MIDI and Apogee Jam.)

I was thinking about “Starman” by David Bowie, and how the verse starts with iim and I chords, which is a little unusual. In “Starman” it’s Gm and F — but I have a great deal of antipathy toward Gm (it can go straight to hell, if you ask me), so I used Am and G as the chords here.

And that’s all I did. No chorus, no other changes. Still, though, I like how it weaves two melodies together, and I like how it all falls apart at the end.

I also like how some of the string-like GarageBand instruments bring kind of a vocal sound — I can almost hear words in there. (But there are none.)

It’s called “Slow House” because it’s slow (as an antidote to the very fast Vampire’s Run) and because the piano is doing kind of a House thing.

Here’s the GarageBand file: SlowHouse.band.zip

It’s not until I make song #1,000 that I’ll make something people actually want to listen to more than once! I get that. I’m sharing anyway, because I think maybe it’s interesting to watch someone learn. 🐣