blue note

Sometimes, when the boys are all home too, I take my guitar and steal away to a nearby stairwell. I make sure to go armed with my airplane neck pillow to sit on because that floor gets harder with every minute that ticks by and always, I make sure to bring something on which I can record lyrics, be it IPhone or journal or my big Book Of Songs.

And tonight, I discovered a new chord.

When I told this to Drew he quickly asked me if I had maybe finally found that elusive H#. Hahahahahahaha, what a smarty pants. So I guess I should specify that I discovered an old chord that is new to me.

There's a note in the chord that is surprising to the ear. It's not exactly congruent and I like it better because of it. And it's also not a trick; it's unexpected, but truly does create something beautiful. Harmonious, even. And I played this chord over and over again because maybe, just maybe, I was hoping that I could get a clue from it.

Maybe that surprising note hints at the grand mystery of life.

Like the part when nothing sounds the way I thought it would; and the melody of the song isn't one that I want to hear, let alone commit to memory and recite day after day. But then it turns out to be maddeningly catchy and soon after that, the maddening part goes away a little bit and is replaced by a peace.

A catchy, flies-in-the-face-of-how-I-should-feel peace.

Or maybe just a resignation.

But whatever it is, there is the hope that it could lead to a beautiful sound. A harmony that soars. And somewhere among these notes that one would would never think to get along, they form a chord.

A beautiful, out of the blue chord.

And a girl in Canada discovers it for herself one night while sitting on a pillow that was always intended to be wrapped around a neck and she feels better for it.

Or something like that.