culture / music

Open Mic Adventures XLI: “Serenade for a Sleepy Student No. 2”

The Portly Politico24 Comments

This time next week, readers are going to get a brand new song from yours portly (indeed, by the time you read this post, it should already be on my YouTube channel; if you’re subscribed, you’ve probably already seen it).

In the meantime, I decided to take a brief break—don’t panic, Ponty!—from the live performances to feature one of my short Red Tardy Slip compositions.  It’s the sequel of sorts to another piece, “Sleepy Student’s Serenade,” which I will likely rename to “Serenade for a Sleepy Student No. 1” if I ever record and release this self-indulgent project.  This one, of course, is entitled “Serenade for a Sleepy Student No. 2.”

I like the simple, melancholic feel of this piece.  I also love the little F diminished chord I put in the penultimate measure.  The original manuscript score (below) has an F minor written, but I changed it to the diminished version of the chord (F, Ab, and Cb [B]) on a whim, and loved the sound of it.  It also feeds in nicely to the G in the same major (G, B, D), with the repeated Cb / B:

And, as always, here it is on YouTube:

Finally, here is the score.  Note that the F diminished is written here as an Fm7 (F, Ab, C, Eb), but I ditched the seventh interval and made it diminished, as noted above.  Had I left the Eb, it’d be an F half-diminished seven chord.

Serenade for a Sleepy student No. 2 - Red Tardy Slip Manuscript

Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures: