Breaking Key (M)

[[Desolate Divine]]

Prologue
F Sharp Minor, C Sharp Minor, B Suspended 4 to B Major.

I sat on a stool facing the back wall of my room with my eyes closed. Below me was the keyboard I was given for my sixteenth birthday. My pride and joy. I sat there; practising the piece I had written a matter of weeks earlier. With my audition coming ever closer, it seemed like all I did these days was practised. Though I got sick of the repetition, and constant thoughts of what needed to be improved, it would be worth it.

The audition was for a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London. This year was my final year of school, and to go there next year would be the opportunity of a lifetime. Nothing I could do here in suburban Melbourne could possibly hope to compete with that. But if I wanted to get that scholarship, I would have to earn it. I would have to show that I am a cut above the rest.

Piano had been a big part of my life for the last twelve years. My dad was a concert pianist. One of the best in Australia. However he passed away when I was five, in a car accident that almost killed me as well. A distracted driver didn’t give way, and ploughed into the driver’s side door at eighty kilometres per hour. The crash left him in a coma, and after two weeks, it was recommended that life support be turned off. He was not going to wake up. Had dad not always been so vigilant in making sure I was strapped into the child-seat as tight as he could, short of suffocating me, I would have been killed as well.

According to mum, I started playing piano in the months after dad died. He had tried to teach me before he passed away, but I showed no interest. Dad assumed I was too young, and decided to wait another year or two, but had managed to teach me how to read music, and which notes were which on the piano. Mum told me that she was preparing dinner, when she heard music coming from where dad used to practise. The piano had been sitting there, gathering dust since dad died. However this one night, I decided to try and read one of dad’s old music books. According to mum, that was the happiest she had ever been to hear the piano being played. Even if it was a five year old playing out of time and out of key, it was like she had dad back with her, just for a minute.

After that, mum enrolled me in lessons, where they discovered that I was more gifted in piano than they realized. By the time I was fourteen, I was playing at a Year Twelve level, and my school pulled some strings for me to do Year Twelve music in Year Nine. To the displeasure of my classmates, all of which were three years older than me, I passed, with the highest score in the class.

I am now eighteen, in my final year of school. I had months before my audition, however spent most of my free time practising. I wrote this piece specifically for it, as I struggled to find one I liked. It is in the key of E Major, though tends to resolve around a B Major chord. The thing I enjoy most about it are the suspended chords. I enjoy seeing how the change of one note, the slight movement of one finger, can change the way an otherwise (and I use this term loosely…) boring chord sounds.

I opened my eyes and glanced at the scribbled notes on my music stand. Next to it was my mobile phone. The screen was lit up, and on it I saw something, which I probably should have noticed earlier.

Missed Call: Amy
Missed Call: Amy
Missed Call: Amy
Missed Call: Amy

“Crap.” I muttered under my breath, taking the headphones off my ears. If there was one thing my girlfriend didn’t like, it was people not picking up their phone. I quickly unlocked the iPhone and had a look at the call log. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw they were all in the space of ten minutes. I had been practising for an hour and a half, and my phone wouldn’t have been touched that whole time. I quickly tapped her name in the call log.

“Hey, sorry,” I said, “I was practising.”

“I figured as much. At least I know that you won’t cheat on me. Your piano tends to take too much of your attention for that.” Amy replied, “Are you ready to turn off the keyboard for the night and spend a bit of time with me?”

“Depends what’s on the table.” I said, looking at my watch, “It is nearly 9pm, on a Tuesday. I doubt anywhere is open. There might still be a movie playing if we are quick?”

“Parks don’t close…” Amy said, leading onto something else.

“Parks are nice during the day, I will give you that.” I said, “But I personally don’t feel like getting mugged or stabbed.

“Daniel invited us to a campfire at Blue Lake.” Amy said, “There’s gonna be a couple of people there.”

“Hmm…” I muttered to myself. Daniel was Amy’s cousin. He and I always seemed to get along well. He was a musician as well. A guitarist, though I had never seen him play. The idea of getting out of the house for a bit appealed to me, but then again it was getting late.

“Please?” Amy said, “We haven’t spent any decent time together in days!”

“We had lunch together today at school?” I replied.

“You mean you downed your lunch in five minutes, then had to go to your piano lesson.” Amy retorted, starting to sound annoyed.

“Point taken,” I said, “I will pick you up in twenty minutes.”


I arrived at Amy’s house, slightly tired, and wishing I were at home. I pulled out my phone and sent her a text, letting her know I was here, before quickly throwing all of the empty McDonalds rubbish into the back.

Soon after, Amy walked out the door and made her way to the passenger side. Her black hair was tied back, and she wore a thick jacket. It was a cold night, and I could tell she could feel it.

“Hey.” I said, leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. She said nothing.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, “I get I might be a bit distant at the moment. I am just trying to make sure I am ready for my audition.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Amy said, “We get to spend some time together now.”

“You’re right.” I said with a smile, as we pulled out of her street. “So do you know where we are going?”

“Just head up Aqueduct Road.” Amy said, “Daniel told me how to get there. It is pretty simple.”

As we drove up Aqueduct Road, we were mostly quiet, until we hit a pothole.

“Crap.” I muttered, as Amy was slightly thrown out of her seat. She was a pretty small girl, so a small bump like that was enough to scare her. Soon after we stopped at a red light.

“I get you love this car and all, but you really couldn’t have picked one less comfortable.” Amy said, “I mean, for what you spent on this, you could have gotten a Mazda 3, or something like that.”

I paused for a second. My car was a dark blue 1988 Nissan Skyline. I loved Skylines, and when I bought myself one after saving for the last two years, it was like a dream come true. Suddenly I had an idea for a laugh, but needed to time it perfectly.

“That is true. I could have gotten a Mazda 3.” I said. If my intuition were correct, the light would go green very soon. “But if I got a Mazda 3, I wouldn’t be able to do this…”

The light went green, and I let my foot off the clutch, slamming down on the accelerator. The car took off with a jump, and revved quickly. I put it into second, and began to take off quickly.

60kpmh

80kmph

“This is where it will get fun.” I thought to myself, as we drove past the 80 sign.

100kmph

120kmph

“Damn it, stop!” Amy screamed from the passenger seat as she grabbed the nearest handle she could find.

I laughed, and put my foot on the clutch and the brake, slowing down to a safe speed.

“So I take it we aren’t going to slide the corners on the dirt road?” I asked with a grin. I had no intention of it, but just wanted to stir her.

“Never do that again.” Amy replied coldly.

“Okay, I get it.” I said, knowing when to quit.

We continued along and Amy directed me onto a side street, which then turned to a dirt road. As we came to the corner, I held down the clutch, and pressed down on the accelerator, causing the car to make heap of noise, without actually moving. I saw out of the corner of my eye Amy jump out of her skin, and giggled to myself, to which she responded with a somewhat hard punch to the arm.

“Okay, NOW I will stop.” I said, proceeding to drive normally for the rest of the trip. A few minutes later, we arrived at a car park, where I saw a bunch of people crowded by one of the cars. Among them I recognised Daniel.

“Hey Daniel.” Amy said, still somewhat coldly, walking over to hug her cousin.

“Hey.” He said, slightly confused, “What’s up with you?”

I saw her head jerk in my direction, before she went to say hi to one of her friends, as Daniel walked over.

“It’s been a while. Last time I saw you would have been Mum’s birthday a few months back?” Daniel said as he shook my hand.

“Yeah that sounds about right.” I replied, “How have you been?”

“Pretty good.” Daniel said, “Yourself? And what’s going on with Amy?”

“I’m doing pretty good. I have an audition for a scholarship at a music school in London, so I’m working my a**e off to get that.” I said, “I think Amy is feeling a little forgotten. That and I kind of maybe had a little bit of fun on that dirt road driving in here.”

Daniel burst into laughter.

“Yeah, I get it.” Daniel said, “Don’t worry, she will get over it.”

“Daniel, is this everyone?” One of the other guys there asked, “You know we aren’t allowed to have a fire here. If the cops come by on patrol and see us with an axe and my car full of firewood, we are in a bit of trouble.”

“Yeah, this is everyone.” Daniel replied casually, “Come on, let’s head in.”

We locked up the cars, grabbed a log or two of firewood each, before heading through the main gate, into the park.

We walked along a clear path, with dense trees either side of us. The path was easy to follow, but if someone strayed from it, chances are they wouldn’t find their way back, especially at this time of night. Eventually we came to a wire fence, where we threw the logs over, before squeezing through it.

Where we stood was a cliff edge. I walked over to the ledge and looked down. Below me was a series of cliffs, all about twenty to thirty meters apart. At the base of the bottom was the lake, which I am sure looked nice during the day.

“Don’t get too close.” Daniel said, “The ground is pretty weak and will crumble near the edge.”

I took a couple of steps back.

“How long have you guys been coming here?” I asked, “A spot like this would be popular, but it doesn’t seem like many people come here. There is hardly any rubbish or graffiti.”

“I have been coming with friends for a few years. It’s a nice spot.” Daniel explained, “People who like this enough to come often tend to respect it. They clean up after themselves, and don’t cause too much trouble. Hell, occasionally the rangers even turn the blind eye to us camping here, even though we are not supposed to. They know we aren’t going to leave a mess behind.”

The fire was soon lit, and eventually we all sat down around it. People were chatting, and those who didn’t have to drive were having a drink or two. I remained quiet for most of the time, just thinking about my audition, and listening to Daniel play his guitar. Usually I wasn’t so interested in guitars, as most of the guitarist I had worked with had proven to be incompetent musicians who knew nothing more than reading tab and accidental chords they had made up. However the way Daniel played was different. What he played worked well together. Yet was strangely different and unusual. I could tell he knew what he was doing.

I watched and listened carefully as I tried to figure it out. After a few minutes, I was convinced I had it. He was picking broken chords, of E Minor, C Major, G Major and D Major, whilst holding down two high-pitched notes that acted as a drone the whole time. A rather simple pattern, however there was something else. Something clever. Then I found it.

E Minor and G Major chords both contain a B note. Instead of starting with an E and G base note on those chords respectively, he started with the lowest B note he could. So whilst the rest of the chord went E Minor, C Major, G Major, D Major, the base notes went B, C, B, and D. I half wished that I had a keyboard here to play along with.

“Hey, are you awake?”

Suddenly I was pulled back into reality by Daniel’s talking.

“Yeah, sorry.” I said, “I was just thinking. What did you say?”

“You play piano right?” Daniel said, “How long would it take you to figure this out?”

To my surprise, Daniel passed his guitar over to me. I grabbed it, and put it on my knee. I put my ear close to it and played the top four strings, trying to get an idea of what notes they were. I wasn’t able to figure out what notes they were exactly, over everyone talking, but did figure out something handy. They were all a perfect fourth apart. That was enough for me to work with.

I used my index finger to hold down the top string on the fifth fret, and then placed my ring finger on the seventh fret of the string below it, and my little finger in the same place below it. If my theory and ear were correct, this should work well. A root note, a perfect fifth and an octave above. Neither major nor minor.

I started playing the chord I had just made, before moving down a string and across two frets, keeping the same hand position, but starting on the seventh fret. I then moved to the ninth, and after that back to the fifth. If I was correct, it should be the I, V, vi, IV of whatever key it is I am playing in. The Four Chord Song.

“So you knew how to make power chords?” Daniel asked, as I gave him back the guitar.

“Power chords?” I asked, “Is that what they are called? I could tell the strings were a perfect fourth apart, and figured the easiest thing for me to do would be a root note and a perfect fifth above.”

Daniel looked at me shocked. I could tell he understood what I was saying.

“So you mean to tell me, you just figured that out then, and made it work?” Daniel asked. “Because that is how half of these so-called rock-stars make their millions. Playing power-chords over ridiculous amounts of distortion.

I laughed.

“You forget how long I have been playing piano.” I said, “Twelve years. Three years ago, I did Year Twelve music, and topped the class.”

“Damn.” Daniel said, “Well, when you get bored of playing your classical music, or whatever it is you play on that piano of yours, give me call. I have way too many guitars, and I think if you borrowed one, you could pretty easily pick it up.”

“I might just do that.” I said, “After my audition.”

“Of course.” Daniel said.

I looked down at my watch and saw the time. 1:14am.

“Crap.” I muttered, before turning to Daniel, “Amy and I had better get going.”

“No worries.” Daniel said, “Thanks for coming. And let me know if you ever want to borrow a guitar.”

“Thanks.” I said, as I stood up, and walked to where Amy sat. “Are you right if we head off now.”

“I don’t mind.” Amy said, “I am starting to get tired.”

We said our goodbyes before walking back down the track towards the car park. Even though they went pretty far into the park, you could still see the glow of the fire and hear the voices of the group.

Amy and I got back in the car, and she was still silent. She was still pissed about the way I drove here.

“I’m sorry for being stupid on the way in.” I said, “Especially with you in the car. I guess that everything has been so serious recently, with school, work, auditions and all that. I just tried to have a little bit of fun. I won’t do it again, okay?”

Amy was silent for a second, thinking about it. Finally she spoke.

“Okay. Sorry for being so grumpy with you before about it.” Amy said, “But seriously, don’t do it again.”

“I won’t.” I said. We were about halfway through the dirt road the lead into the park, however before I could continue, I noticed something strange. Another car driving the opposite direction. As it passed us, I recognised it as a police car.

“Daniel is gonna be in trouble.” Amy said, somewhat nervously, “Reckon he will get out of it?”

“Probably not. If it were a ranger maybe. But you can see where they are from the car park, and hear them.” I said, “I might be able to get him out of it though.”

“How…” Amy asked, uneasy about what I would say next.

“Do you trust me?” I said, struggling not to smile.

“Yes?” She replied, still uneasy.

“Well text Daniel and tell him to get out now.” I said, “Then hold on.”

I drove until I could barely hear the police car behind us. At that point, I put the car into first, and found a large patch of dirt track, right by the bitumen road. I turned the wheel hard left, before pushing down hard on the accelerator, proceeding to do the biggest donut I could, and make as much noise as possible, hopefully more than the amount Amy was making in the passenger seat. After about ten seconds I stopped.

“What the f-“ Amy shouted.

“Ssh.” I said, as I turned off the car. I heard what I wanted to hear. The sound of the police car, getting louder. Sirens and all.

I started the car, and then took off down the road. I had to find somewhere to hide. A long driveway or a car park. Somewhere dark. I knew I didn’t have very long. The police car was a VF Commodore SS. 6 Litre V8 engine. Though my car was somewhat quick, the police car was literally twice as powerful. One advantage I did have however was that I was no longer on the dirt track.

After a minute or so, I found something perfect. A football oval with a large car park. No lights were on at this hour. I drove in, and drove around the back, turning off the car and the headlights.

“If this doesn’t work, I am going to kill you.” Amy hissed.

“Get in line.” I said grinning, “If this doesn’t work and we get arrested, mum will kill me first.”

After about half a minute, the police car roared past us, stopping at the next intersection, before turning onto the main road, heading north.

“Who is a genius?” I asked, laughing. It was soon received with a punch to the arm.

“Come on, you gotta admit that made tonight that little bit more exciting.” I said to Amy, “And it means your cousin doesn’t have to spend the night in a police station.”

Amy tried to keep her serious face, but soon failed and started laughing.

“I will let you have this one.” Amy said, “ONLY this one.”

After a few minutes, I could hear cars driving towards us, so I started mine, and made my way to the exit. Shortly after, a group of cars drove past, that I recognised from the group we were at Blue Lake with. At the back was Daniel. When I saw his car, I flashed my lights, trying to get his attention. He soon slowed down, and rolled down his window, coming up next to us.

“I guess I owe you guys one.” Daniel said with a laugh, “You should have seen everyone crap themselves when I told them Amy told us to get out of there, and a second later, we all heard your little burnout and police sirens.”

“I have two spare tickets to a concert tomorrow night.” Daniel explained, “I was going to try and sell them, but seeing as you guys saved me that much money in a fine, they are yours if you want them.”

“Send us the details, and I will let you know in the morning.” I said, “Right now I am too tired and hyped up on adrenaline to make plans.”

Daniel laughed, before waving goodbye and driving off.