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Credits: The bass, the keyboards, all rhythm guitars, and the solo guitar are played by Cem. The drums are programmed by Cem. The song was composed in March 2022. This track was recorded in November 2022. It was released in December 2022 with the rest of the album.
Conception: After the first four songs, I ran out of ideas and chord progressions. My guitar teacher suggested that I should take the songs I like, transpose the chord structure and change the rhythm to come up with new songs. I followed his advice. Interestingly, the two songs I picked, Let it Be by the Beatles and Don’t Stop Believing by Journey, had the same chord progression (1-5-6-4). I transposed it to D major and changed the rhythm. With some help from my son, I came up with a groovy bass line with a catchy drum beat. For the first time, I wrote a guitar solo based on triads following the underlying chords. I was mesmerized by how melodic it sounded. I introduce my other learnings along the way, emphasizing the 7th note, single string moves, Bach-style phrasing, and some bending. This song was the turning point in the album where I was able to create something new from what I learned. I named it Farewell to Midgard as it represented the best of what I have become.
Execution: The song opens with strong bass and drum supported by background acoustic guitar and keyboards. The solo comes in melodically jumping through the triads. A signature that serves as an anchor is introduced at the fourth measure of the solo. Phrasing jumps to the higher octave. The rhythm transitions to a heavy guitar. The second solo comes in full energy on top building momentum. The phrasing changes every four measures but the signature stays the same. Rhythm further changes and the second rhythm guitar introduces a complimentary melody. The first solo is then laid on top of this rhythmic melody as the song slowly fades away.
Mechanics: The song is written in D major with 4/4 measures at 140 bps. The main piece is composed of four chords – D, A, Bm, and G (1-5-6-4). It switches to D, A, F#m, and G (1-5-3-4) for some variance. The solo uses triads for each underlying chord to sound melodic. A signature based on the first inversion G triad is used to anchor the song as the phrasing changes throughout the song. The drums and bass stay steady and strong, as the solo goes in and out of its groove.
Here are the private notes.