Alex arrived at our school in year 11. We clocked the Nitzer Ebb T-shirt before we clocked anything else about him, which told us most of what we needed to know about his taste in music. We made a point of introductions, and became good friends quickly.
Some time later the two of us sat at a piano together, working out a little riff we had come up with. The whole thing turned on a single note, an alternation between major and minor over the same tonic, with the root and fifth holding steady while the third flickered between bright and bruised. It sounded uncomfortable, with a bit of chromatic friction. He loved it immediately, and while it troubled me at first it grew on me. You could hear, in the space of one semitone, just how much emotion and energy can shift.
It is remarkable how little it takes to change the whole feeling of a thing. A short break, pause or shift (even if just a semitone) is often enough to recharge, reset, and re-release for the moment ahead. Yes, things are difficult at times, but nothing is forever. Enjoy it if you can, endure it if you must, and recognise that, whichever way things go, brighter days are on the horizon.
This is episode 127 of Music For Small Audiences. Recorded live on an Australian winter evening the weekend before a midweek getaway to tropical Queensland, it provides alternating slices of major and minor key energy as befits the mood of the day. Tracks include some of Argentina’s finest, along with a few quality works from local Melbourne legends.