Meet the Family
For some reason, whilst I was in the shower, instead of thinking about new tunes or additions to old ones (as I often do through random singing), I started thinking about notes and their relationships with each other. Rather literally.
Now I've always associated colours with sounds, with each note having it's own colour, each key, each chord, etc. (it gets rather complicated in my mind, sometimes). But I just took that one stage further and gave them characters...
Oh dear, this is where it gets a little... Weird, perhaps. Note that whilst I've included an ABC here, it's not for playing, just for illustration, as it's the easiest way to show what I mean (well, you can play it if you want, I guess!).
I've excluded putting in E#, Fb, B#, Cb because, well. It was making my head hurt trying to work out which way around to put them! (also, it won't work without the "metre", yet it will let you just put it all in without putting it into bars... Crazy!!)
So, anyway, here's the story...
C
So, first we meet Charles. He's a bit of a toff, absolutely everyone knows him and, whilst he appears to get on with most of the others, he actually hates everyone. He tends to go around dressed completely in black.
C#
On the weekend, Charles likes to dress sharply, in a pin-striped dark-grey skirt-suit, going out as his alter-ego, Charlotte. You really wouldn't be able to tell at any point that it was the same person!!
Db
Charlotte's partner-in-crime, quite often, is Dani. They look like twins when they're out on the pull together, they even sound alike! There's just one difference - Dani's clothing is a drab grey-brown.
D
Dani's younger brother is Daniel (well, they might be the same person, it's just no one's ever confirmed it either way, having never caught them out nor seen them together, and the fact that Daniel has a slightly higher voice). He likes to wear rich chocolate browns and has rather spectacularly coiffured hair.
D#
Dennis. Well, he's a biker. A rather effeminate one, if one may say so! He rides around on his pinky-brown bike, trying to make himself look butch, but... Well, it usually doesn't work.
Eb
Ellie. You see, Dennis has this twin sister, and... Well, yes, you get the picture (I hope). It might have been the tattoos that gave it away. Or perhaps the smudge of grease on the nose over the top of the make-up, the fact that they sound perfectly alike, etc...
E
Eric. Well, when I first met him, I thought he was a designer, dressed in his plush purple velvet suit. Well, ahem. It turned out I was completely wrong - he's actually a pimp...
F
Frank is quite an easy going sort of chap, apart from one thing - he hates Eric with a passion. It might be his day job, I don't know (perhaps also the fact that Frank is a retired police officer). Nowadays he likes to dress in his red smoking jacket and slippers, reading the paper in his comfy armchair by the fire, muttering about how much the world has gone down hill since he was a lad...
F#
With her ever trusty pale-red lipstick, brushed suit, and tidy bun, you would have never thought that this smart business lady, Francis, used to be a pole dancer...
Gb
Gertrude is Francis' identical twin. They can quite often be seen out singing together in nightclubs (the same ones they both used to dance in, actually, when they were younger), when they're not doing their dayjobs of working in the local post office (they wanted to be bank managers, but the banks refused to employ them). Trouble is, no one has ever been able to tell the difference between the girls, except them themselves. Means that their husbands have often confused one for the other, not that the ladies themselves mind - it stops them from getting bored.
G
He's not very intelligent, but Gary seems to get by in life. He's such a popular guy, but unfortunately doesn't have the brains to realise that half the time people are laughing at him as much as they are working with him. It might have something to do with the fact that those grass stains on his jeans match his yellowish-green eyes perfectly.
G#
Gemma wanted to do something far better with her life. Instead she ended up stuck living in the flat across from Gary, working as a hotel cleaner in her dark-green uniform. She hated him from the first moment she saw him and tends to resent the fact that he has more "friends" than her (or so she thinks).
Ab
I bet no one ever expected the fact that Gemma also really desires to be a man! Well, she says so, but it's just that she finds going out as Alex liberating. For one thing, she no longer has customers and the managers trying to get up her skirt!
A
Alison is a lawyer. Quite a successful lawyer, in fact. It might be her piercing blue eyes that seem to stare right through you. Or it might just be the fact that she's seriously good at her job!
A#
There isn't one quite so troubled in the world as Amy. Quick to anger, she tends to take it out on whoever happens to get in her way. She's a decent girl, really, usually dressing in a long, dark-pink cotton dress. She absolutely hates it when she is confused with her younger sister!!
Bb
So, what can I tell you about Bea? The younger sister of Amy, being so alike in almost every way, the two are often confused for each other. The biggest difference is... Well... Bea is a slut. It is said that she has been seen working for Eric on the sly, but the rumours have never been confirmed as she's rarely been caught, and when she has she's blamed it on Amy!
B
Beatrice, a stunning beauty. Was once married to Eric, but got fed up with his behaviour and divorced him. Well, so people say, but if the rumours are true... Yes, she's actually Bea in disguise. It's amazing what some alternative make-up, different clothes (her favourite dress being her pale-pink mid-length jeans dress), and some voice training can do!!
C
Carol is Charles' mother, as it happens. You hear it immediately as soon as they start talking. Carol is retired, her once black hair long turned to white. But being retired doesn't mean she behaves. She has been known from time to time to go down and see her flat mate, Beatrice. They have a padded room as no one can stand the noise!!
Well, I hope this isn't too scary! The names up there aren't actually all that important, nor the specific character descriptions I've written out. My point of all this is that each note has it's very own, destinct character. Together, they create different characters, different feelings, some good, some bad, some feeling more favourable and friendly than others.
If I'm having a bad day, struggling to find inspiration, with my usual "friends" group (keys) unable to give me the right sort of friendly advice I need... Well it's at those times I move somewhere else, choose a different place to start, a different key, and make some new friends. Besides, I'm sure they'd get lonely if we didn't visit them often enough...!
