Sad, Slow Minor Moodling

A few days ago, I wrote about my lack of enthusiasm for minor sevenths, my Level 4 Foundations focus for the month at Piano With Jonny. At the end of that post, I wrote that I might try to "improvise/compose something, maybe, that manages to be based in minor sevenths without sounding lost and listless."

Sunday night when we got home from the volleyball party, I myself was feeling a little lost and listless. I'm not sure why. Part of it is I'm sad that yet another club volleyball season is over. I was also tired, and my teen daughter and I weren't getting along, and ... I just felt sad.

Even though it was after 9pm on a Sunday night, I sat down to practice for a few minutes ... but nothing was working. Not only that, I didn't feel like practicing anything. I wasn't in the mood for happy, bouncy ragtime, so no Maple Leaf Rag or Bare Necessities. My Chopin Nocturne would have matched my mood, but I didn't want to think that hard.

I just wanted to play and not think. That's what I wanted to do.

So I started "moodling" on the the I-IV-V minor seventh progression in C minor. I use the word "moodling" to mean a kind of aimless musical doodling that is guided by my mood--my melancholy mood, in this case.

What did I come up with? Nothing great. Nothing profound. Nothing catchy. But ... it sounds nice. It sounds lost and listless, but not in a bad way. It sounds kind of comforting (I think).

So here it is, my Melancholy Moodle in C Minor. It's little more than broken chords, with no real attempt at melody, but it's mine, and I like it.

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