What happens to a man who’s exhausted every musical pleasure available to him? When he’s digested every possible piece of Pop and Prog, regurgitated centuries worth of progressions and melodies, what becomes of him? Such is not a man, but a dissonant shell of his former self.
So lately, I’ve been into this dark little chord. It’s called an E Lydian (b9) Chord, like the name of a distant star nobody cares about. Were I a religious man, I’d call this a Satanic chord. Drag upon my noteheads and despair.
For guitar: 0x8866. I’ve arranged it above on ledger lines for educational purposes.
What a polytonal monster! What subtle beauty! It has an Augmented 4th, a Major 7th, and a Minor 9 on top. It’s essentially an A# suspended chord resting uncomfortably atop an E bass. To solo over this chord, use the 5-note A# Minor Pentatonic Scale or the 7-note D# Minor Scale and save the special note E for the lower octave, as a passing tone, or to amp up the dissonance with chromatic movement around the cluster: D# E F♮ F#.
This is the kinda chord I imagine the Elite enjoys behind closed doors, not electric keyboards and reversed singing. It would be untoward of me, a humble blogger, to venture a colloquial name, but the “Luciferean Chord” has a nice ring to it, and well-suited given that it features the devilish tritone interval.
The Luciferean chord goes well with an A Lydian Chord, making for an especially dissonant One to Four progression, but that’s my little trick, so don’t steal. ;)
In the future, will mankind be content to hear the same old songs, like the oldest song, totally tonal, suitable even for babies? Or will he tire of base consonance, and embrace the refined madness of Polytonal Pop music?
