Chapter 2
“So what did you think?” Amy asked as we walked down Russel Street, “Did it meet your concert pianist standards?”

It was nearing 10pm when we left, and the city was still as alive as ever.

“It was better than I expected.” I replied. Truth was, I actually really enjoyed it. Though I wasn’t going to let Amy know that. She had the tendency to say ‘I told you so’.

“What was the opening song that Tonight Alive did? With the really quick drum fill?” I asked.

“Lonely Girl.” Amy replied, “Did you like it?”

“Yeah, it was probably my favourite.” I said, “Though I’m still pretty surprised that the support band were as good as the headliner.”

“Don’t get accustomed to that.” Daniel laughed, “I have seen some pretty shitty support bands. Like, when I saw Nickelback, they had these two stoners from Mildura that played pretty much the same song over and over. Just with the ‘****s’ in different places.”

“You seem surprised?” I asked, “It’s Nickelback…”

“Are you kidding me?” Daniel asked, sound nearly hurt, “Nickelback actually have some pretty deep and cool music!”

“Isn’t the first line of one of their songs ‘I like your pants around your feet’?” I asked teasingly, trying to make Daniel uncomfortable. I should have realized he would call my bluff.

“Hey, at least they’re honest!” Daniel retorted, “Who doesn’t like a girl with her pants around her feet? Don’t you?”

“Anyway!” Amy said loudly, eagerly trying to change the conversation, “What have you got planned for the weekend Daniel?”

“The band might have a gig at the Espy on Saturday night.” Daniel explained, “If they stop screwing us around. But I’ll let you know if it happens. If it does, you two should come.”

“I doubt I’d be able to drag him away from his keyboard.” Amy said.

“Maybe.” I said, to which Amy’s jaw dropped. That was half the reason I said it.

“You refuse to leave the house when I ask you to, but the moment your new boyfriend does, you do?” Amy asked mockingly.

“What can I say? The bromance is strong.” Daniel said with a laugh.

We soon arrived back at Flinders Street Station, and got the next train back to Greensborough. As we sat on the train, Amy fell asleep resting her head on me, as Daniel and I discussed music. I was half surprised at his knowledge of music theory. I guess I was guilty of viewing guitarists as the Neanderthals of the music industry, who learnt by just trying things until it worked, and not knowing anything about it. Yet he knew a lot, even the tiny details like when to and not to use suspended chords.

“Crap…” Daniel muttered as he looked past me. I turned around and saw a bunch of ticket inspectors walking towards our carriage from the next one.

“You touched on at Flinders Street?” I asked, “I saw you?”

“I finished school last year and am still on a student ticket.” Daniel responded, “I don’t have a student card any more.”

We were pulling up at the next stop. Dennis.

“Get off the train here.” I said, “And don’t let them see you. The exit is past them, so pretend you’re going there, and get on the carriage they have already been through. Then meet me back here.”

“I was thinking the exact same thing.” Daniel replied, “Wish me luck.”
Daniel grabbed his black jacket, and put that on, pulling up the hood, as he got off the train. I saw him make his way over to the far side of the platform where it was darker, and start walking to the exit.

The ticket inspectors got onto out carriage, however before Daniel could get onto the previous one, the doors shut, and the train departed. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself when I saw the look on his face.

“Ticket?” said a rather grumpy looking, overweight, and middle aged man in a PTV uniform. He held out his portable ticket machine. I grabbed my Myki from my wallet and tapped it against the machine, then showed my student card. I then noticed him looking at Amy.

“You really don’t want to wake her up.” I said, “We were just at a rock concert, and she had a few too many, if you know what I mean.”

The man grunted and moved on, as I decided on how to tell Amy that I stopped her from being rudely awoken by the ticket inspector, that would make me look best.

When we were halfway between Watsonia and Greensborough, I gently nudged Amy to wake her up.

“Where’s Daniel?” She yawned.

“Ticket inspectors rocked up, so he got off the train to avoid a fine, but didn’t get back on in time.” I explained.

“Of course he did.” Amy muttered.

“Now arriving at Greensborough.” Said the voice over the PA system.

We got off the train and made our way back to the car. As we drove back to Amy’s house, I let her choose the music, which was mostly Tonight Alive and recognised a couple of the songs. Some of them had a punk-rock sound, which I really enjoyed, whilst others had a crappy electro-pop-rock style to them. Upon asking Amy, I found out that their most recent album had changed their sound pretty drastically, to the pop-rock type of thing we were listening to. Surprisingly, Amy preferred that.

I dropped her off, and as she got out of the car, plugged my phone in to listen to the audition piece again. However before I pressed play, an idea came to mind. I opened Spotify and tapped the search bar.

Hands Like Houses

I had a look through the song names, and found one that interested me.

Wisteria.

I was shocked at the sudden introduction. No build up or anything. Straight in with quick and punchy drums, heavy rhythm guitar and a melodic lead guitar.

I listened to this track, and a bunch of others by the band I’d only heard for the first time earlier that night, and enjoyed myself as I drove home. It felt strange, as the only music I had really liked was piano based, pop-rock type of stuff. The Fray, The Script, that sort of stuff. When I grew older, I came to appreciate some classical and orchestral music as well. Never anything like this.

I arrived home, and made my way to my room. It was late, but I wanted to get some more practise in for the audition. I had spent two nights in a row out, where I could have been practising, and needed to make up for it. Another hour at least before I went to sleep, just to make sure I wasn’t getting sloppy.

I sat at the keyboard, and played through the audition piece, which I still hadn’t thought of a name for. For a total of ten minutes. The whole time, I couldn’t play it properly. I was making silly mistakes. My fingers would slip and hit the wrong keys. The tune that was in my head wasn’t my piece. It was Wisteria.

In the end, I gave in. My mentality was that unless I figured out how to play it, it would be stuck in my head. I pulled my laptop off the desk, and sat it on the edge of the keyboard, and opened Spotify, managing to find the track.

When it was playing, I began playing major scales over it in attempt to find the key of it. It was the second simplest way, only being beaten by using a website to find the key out myself. But I was a musician. There was no way I’d stoop to that level.

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

Definitely not.

G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G

Not even close.

D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

Okay…

A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A

This is starting to get irritating.

E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E

I am starting to run out of normal keys…

B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#, B

Okay, time for the weird keys…

F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#, F#

I swear to God, if this turns out to be in F Major…

C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, B#, C#

C# Major. Or nearly. Though this song didn’t sound depressing, it was no doubt Minor. A# Minor.

I first began figuring pieces out by ear a few years back. When I had a fairly solid understanding of keys and diatonics, the years of playing made it easy for me to do. After all, even though the chords change depending on the key, their relativity remains. The second is always a minor, be it Dm in C, Am in G or Em in D. And it has the same sound relative to everything else.

This song wasn’t much more difficult. The left hand would just be playing chords, and the right playing the melody. Soon enough, I had the intro and first verse figured out mostly. Then I realized the time. Shit…