Poseidon · Lesson 6 — The Golden Arrangement

🎼 What you play, section by section

Same chords throughout. The rhythm is what changes.

The verse chords are unchanged from Lesson 5: C · G · D · Em. The D is D major. F♯, not F.

Section	Right hand	What it sounds like
Verse 1	Whole notes	One chord, held for the full bar. Nothing else.
Verse 2	Whole notes	Same. Held.
End of pre-chorus	Four-beat break	Hold the last E minor for four beats, then the chorus starts.
Chorus	Quarter notes	Pulse on every beat. One hit per beat, even.
Verse 3	Quarter notes	The pulse stays in from here.
Verse 4	Quarter notes	Same pulse as verse 3.
Bridge	See below	Em · D · D · C, then G · D · D · C.

🎯Whole notes for the first half of the song, quarter notes for the second half. That is the arc.

🌉 The choice we made

The bridge moves the second time through

Two options were on the table. Play Em D D C three times, or play it twice with the second pass starting on G. We took the second one. It has more color and it tells the listener the bridge is going somewhere.

The bridge, both halves

Tap a button. Left hand is the bass note, right hand is the chord on top.

🔊 Only the first chord differs between the halves. Em becomes G. The last three chords are identical.

💡 The rule that matters more than the choice

Pick a version and play it the same way every time. An arrangement you play consistently beats a better arrangement you play differently on every take.

❓ One item unresolved

G or E minor at one spot

⚠️ Do not settle this on your own

One chord in the arrangement is still unconfirmed. It is either G or E minor. We check it against the record together on Aug 30.
Until then, play it the way you played it in the lesson. Do not switch back and forth while you practice. Switching is how a spot becomes unreliable.

🎙️ The homework

The recording loop

This is the main assignment. Everything else waits behind it. The goal is one take of "Golden" all the way through with no mistakes, sent to Greg before the next lesson.

Start a recording. Phone, laptop, anything. Play "Golden" from the top.
Stop the moment you make a mistake. Do not push through it.
Drill that one section 10 to 20 times, slowly, until it is solid.
Start a new recording from the top.
Repeat until you get through the entire song clean.
Send that take to Greg before the Aug 30 lesson.

💡 Why the recording is part of it

Playing a section correctly in isolation is not the same as playing it correctly inside a full run. The recording is what makes you find out which one you can do.
Restarting from the top is the point. It puts every section back under pressure, which is the condition you will be in on Sep 11.

✅ Between now and the next lesson

Golden first. Blinding Lights after.

🌟 "Golden" — the priority

Run the recording loop daily.
Verse chords: C · G · D · Em. Check the F♯ in the D every time.
The four-beat break before the chorus needs to land in time. Count it.
Bridge: Em D D C, then G D D C.

🌙 "Blinding Lights" — prep only

Four chords, looping: Fm · Cm · E♭ · B♭.
A four-chord loop played the same way for three minutes gets dull. Next lesson we build an arrangement for it: rhythmic and harmonic variation.
Bring your notes on the song to the lesson. That is the whole assignment here.
Do not start this work until "Golden" is clean.

Aug 30

Next lesson · 6:00–7:00 PM Greg's time / 9:00–10:00 AM Taipei time · same Zoom link

Sep 5

Back in LA

Sep 11

The show

🖥️ Keep this for next time

The Zoom setup that worked

This configuration ran the whole lesson without a problem. Use the same one on Aug 30.

📱Phone vertical on a stand, aimed at your hands. Greg can see the keys and the fingering.

🎚️Zoom: "Original Sound for Musicians" on. Without it Zoom compresses the piano into mush.

🎛️GarageBand: audio input set to None. That stops the "Audio Disconnected" popup interrupting the lesson.