I’m a fan of Andrew Huang, a great youTuber who talks about music theory, electronic music, and is a talented songwriter in his own right. On a recent video, Andrew expressed his long-time obsession with a rather tasty chord: A 13 chord with a sharp 11 and no 7.
The easier way to think about this is to play two major chords together, the second a full tone and an octave higher than the first. For example, a C major and a D major up an octave.
In his video, Andrew proposed a songwriting or composition challenge to use this chord in a song where it’s not the final chord (the way he’s always heard it to end a jazz song).
I came up with a progression starting with the special chord, then developed a B part progression with the same chord, plus some other spicy chords based on other types of polychords. I changed the A part progression to simple major and minor chords, saving the tasty harmonies for the chorus.
For the lyrics, I started with a lyric prompted by a Wordle solution I did, which I thought might make a cool opening lyric.
The rest of the lyric is a bunch of random references and a pencil my wife had with a funny saying on it.
It’s always interesting to do a songwriting challenge, especially when the deadline for submissions is very close! The added pressure allowed me to get this song completed very quickly.
Enjoy!
Chords:
Verse / Pre-Chorus:
Dm
F
Bb/F
A
Chorus:
F13 #11 no7
Fmaj9
Fsus4 b7 #9
Bmin/D add11 add#13
Lyrics:
Their lines feign being
Circlin’ with no feeling
Gotta keep it reeling
Greedies keep on stealing
Why you runnin’ like a square?
Should be chillin’ like a polar bear
Three points, free choice, Lillithfair
Jammin’ in the lair with Sonny and Cher
Dot dot dot
Et cetera et cetera
Dot dot dot
Et cetera et cetera
Steal my pencil and I’ll stab you with it
Triangle man got the goods on ya
Person man, he’s a psycho killa
Like that cocoa hound, Willie Wanka Willa
He got the sweets for that Hun, Atilla
Their lines feign being
Why you wheelin’ and a dealin’?
Get your facts right, no cheatin’
Just be you, your soul be beamin’
Dot dot dot
Et cetera et cetera
Steal my pencil and I’ll stab you with it
The whole song overall I’d say 8 out of 10. I really like the rap style you have chosen for this, and it reminds of some Snoop Dogg and Eminem songs. The repetitious nature really lends itself to this genre. The line with the pencil is a bit violent and vicious and kinda doesn’t fit the rest of the lyrics… I don’t know maybe it fits if you think it’s an artist singing about his poetry or lyrical skills. I am not a fan of the verb you used on the opening strings but it does work more or less with this theme. The addition of the moving pencil in the video is a nice touch, reminds me of old school demos/intros. 🙂