Mirus Murus

Ever since I got an inkling of the chords of the song, Oasis' Wonderwall has had a special mystique. I would sit down at the piano and jam at the song, and, lo and behold, ten minutes had passed.

It's therefore not an understatement to call this my favorite song for improv, especially mixed with the equally great sound of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams. This album is a compilation of the best improvs that I made with these two songs, from the quick to the finger-shattering. There's no editing, just me playing. Enjoy the mellow strains!

CLIPS

SONGS SYNOPSIS:

1. THROW IT BACK (6:15): This song serves as the model for all the other improvs: the quiet start, the chord and scale-rich development, and the recapitulation set the theme for the album.
2. BUILT UP (6:21): Exactly as the name says. The motif of the first 45 seconds is just golden, and then it pans out into a rich landscape of scale.
3. BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS (5:06): The shortest song of the album. I intentionally kept away from more exotic keys to keep the melody obvious. Picture the song as if you're actually walking that lonely road.
4. AFTER ALL (16:07): The first musical epic! It keeps a strong rhythmic march while the melody climbs up increasing levels of complication.
5. THE WAY I DO (10:33): This song turns the base melody inside out, into a very passionate and "lost-sounding" theme, as if standing atop a mountain looking for hope in the desolation surrounding you.
6. ALL THE LIGHTS (27:40): The second musical epic. Here the base song is spread into slow arpeggios, broken, and semi-broken chords, fusing the desperation of the base melody with something almost serene. Think of wandering under the stars at night in a slightly magical forest.
7. WALK THAT ROAD (7:18): This song takes two themes, one inside the other: a main, staccato-heavy one, and the more classic flowing scale one. The slow transition between the two defines the song.
8. I DON'T BELIEVE (9:51): The most landscape-y sounding piece of the album, as if it was the background to a bird's eye over a landscape in a movie. The basic key (D minor) pushes that feel to the max.
9. BALLAD OF THE WALL AND THE ROAD (32:23): The third and greatest musical epic. There's a place for every theme and feel in this song, from slow scales to fast marches to even a few sections of dissonance. I consider it a novel, written in notes instead of words.
10. MIRUS MURUS (9:47): The title is Latin for "wonderful wall," and it's the song that inspired All the Lights. However, I think the extreme lyrical richness and depth of the chords in this song makes it the better of the two - in fact, I think it's my favorite of the songs in the album.
11. FIRE IN THE HEART (18:01): The fourth musical epic. Similar in idea to Throw It Back, but longer, slower, and with more of my signature chords and scales.