As a “ha ha” (think Nelson Muntz) to music professors everywhere, I wrote “Clowns” – a song that breaks just about every traditional rule for songwriting. I feel the need to say that up front so no one thinks I wrote “Clowns” under the impression it was a harmonically sound piece of music.
Because it’s not. If I have to explain this song to Bach in the next life, I’m in big trouble.
The instrumentation of “Clowns” is completely arbitrary: organ, sawtooth, charang and timpani? Honestly! Parallel fifths and harmonizing errors run amuck (not unlike a good Foo Fighters album, heh)… and yet the song is almost clever. Some may even find it catchy. Personally, the song drives me insane but it fulfilled its role – to prove that music can be written while disobeying all rules of tradition. Sometimes it’s fun to bust out of the traditional mold and throw down something funky like this.
Just don’t hate me if “Clowns” gets stuck in your head for a lot longer than you’d like.
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"Clowns" by Tanner Helland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be obtained here.
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