2025-Feb-01 - Constellation
This week's randomly selected song Constellation is track #6 from disc #2 of my triple CD album It Was All Just a Dream.
Constellation first appeared on my 2017 album Juxtaposition, and again on my 2022 album Juxtaposition Reimagined. The final version of the song on It Was All Just A Dream features me playing bass guitar (replacing the synthesizer bass from the original version), and I changed the rhythm guitars to be quite a bit less distorted and heavy, especially during the verse sections. And of course the drums and overall mix got a pretty substantial upgrade as well.
The origin of the song came from the single-string "pedal-tone" motif that you hear at the very beginning of the song and repeated throughout the song. If you're not a music theory nerd like I am, pedal tone (aka pedal point) refers to a melodic technique of using a repeated note throughout a melodic phrase. In this case it is my open G-string that sounds in the "spaces" between the descending fretted melodic notes. There are several pedal tone motifs in the song, and the way these phrases sounded to me, I thought of it as the musical equivalent of twinkling stars. And because of the song featured several groups of these musical twinkling stars, it only seemed right to call the song Constellation.
WARNING: This section goes deep into the weeds with music theory!
Compositionally, Constellation features a lot of key changes and shifts in tonality based on several modes and exotic scales. The main pedal tone motif plus the verse melodies are based on the G Lydian mode. The Lydian mode sounds almost like a major scale, but it has a raised 4th degree that adds just a slight amount of instability and wistfulness. But I also throw in a C major chord at the end of the progression that doesn't fit within the key, but it adds a bit of tension and provides a seamless transition to the pre-chorus.
The pre-chorus shifts from G Lydian [G,A,B,C#,D,E,F#] to B Phrygian Dominant [B,C,D#,E,F#,G,A]. As you can see, there are a lot of common notes between the two scales, so that helps make the transitions very smooth.
There is another shift from the pre-chorus to the chorus from B Phrygian Dominant [B,C,D#,E,F#,G,A] to E minor [E,F#,G,A,B,C,D]. The difference here is only one note, D vs D#. Even though the tonic changes from B to E from pre-chorus to chorus, the abundance of common notes makes for a seamless transition.
After the second chorus comes the bridge which starts with the same pre-chorus motif, but transposed from B up a 4th to E Phrygian Dominant [E,F,G#,A,B,C,D]. There's still a lot of common notes from the chorus to the bridge, so the transition feels natural.
Next comes the guitar solo. There are primarily just two chords supporting the guitar solo: E and C. But these chords are not at all related and are never found naturally in the same key. So to navigate this for the solo, I had to find two different scales or modes that had a fair number of common tones but would work with the underlying chords to create cohesive and natural sounding melodic phrases. I chose E Mixolydian [E,F#,G#,A,B,C#,D] for the parts where the backing chord was E, and C Lydian [C,D,E,F#,G,A,B] for the parts where the backing chord was C. Basically the difference between these scales was C & G vs C# & G#.
So that's a lot more theory than usual. Let me know if you like this sort of detail. I'm always happy to geek out on this stuff! 🤓
I used five guitars for Constellation. For the rhythm guitar parts, I played my "Swirly" Ibanez RG470 and my Ibanez J. Custom RG8571 through the "VII" voice of my Mesa Boogie Mark VII amp. For the ambient clean guitars, I played my PRS Custom 24 and Solar S2.6 through my Synergy Fryette Deliverance preamp, green channel. I played all of the lead melody parts on my Sully Guitars 624 Conspiracy Series prototype through the red channel of my Synergy Soldano SLO preamp.
If you love what you hear and want to support the music I make, please consider purchasing It Was All Just a Dream on CD or digital download. I will gladly personalize and autograph your copy.
https://chrisstark.com/it-was-all-just-a-dream
Keep an eye out for next Saturday's song spotlight, and as always, thank you sincerely for all of your support!
Love, Aloha, and Rock!
❤️😎🎸