The Roommate (The Camgirl Part 2)

Part XVI: Nothing Underneath

XVI: Liam and Marie

Liam

"Here, listen," Liam said, situating his fingers on the guitar, "You can make it sound a bit crunchier if you do the seventh, or even the ninth chord."

He strummed the progression three times in quick succession, first with the regular chords, then adding a seventh, and then a ninth to the dominant one.

"See? It doesn't change the actual progression too much, but it makes it more satisfying when you get to that last chord."

Eli blinked, then tried it out himself, eyes growing a bit wider as he did so.

"Damn," he breathed, "But how did you know to put it on that chord instead of the others? Making those ones crunchier just sounds a little weird."

Liam nodded, "That's where the whole theory part comes in."

"Oh, right, cuz it's the five chord?"

"The dominant, and yeah, so its function is just to build up a little tension so that its more satisfying when you get back to the tonic or the submediant--the one or the six. Listen."

Liam strummed through a but longer chord progression than the one they were fooling around with--the acoustic version of "Get Low" just looped the famous "four chords" progression over and over again. When he got to the final dominant, he added a few extra notes to the chord, but stopped there, letting it ring. It made him shiver.

"Ahhh," Eli groaned, "That's so weird. It feels so wrong without the next chord."

Liam laughed, strumming the tonic instead of the six chord that came next in the song, "Wanna give it a try just playing through it and adding the extra extensions wherever? I'll play a baseline."

Eli grinned, "Sounds good."

They were about halfway through the second verse when the door opened up and Matt came in. He grinned when he saw them, putting down his bag and clapping to the beat.

Eli held in his laughter just long enough to finish the verse.

"You guys still want to play Halo?" Matt asked, "I didn't know you were having a jam sesh."

Eli shook his head, resting the guitar against his desk, "You're good, man. Liam was just blowing my mind with some music theory."

Matt snorted, "Yeah, he does that."

Liam shook his head as Matt took one of the smaller wooden chairs that had come with the dorm room and pulled it closer to the TV. His shoulders made it look even smaller than it was. Matt was shorter by Liam by a few inches, but jacked. Liam had made some good progress in the gym recently over the past year, but he still had a ways to go until he would be close to lifting as much as Matt had halfway through high school, and his friend had only gotten stronger since. Matt wasn't overly-muscular. Just ridiculously athletic with the benefit of bodybuilder genes.

"So how was Thanksgiving for you guys?" Matt asked, getting out his controller, "Swar still out?

Liam nodded as he turned on the game system and handed Eli one of the controllers, "Yep. I think his classes start late tomorrow so he's just going to come back tomorrow morning."

"Kinda wish I'd done that," Eli said, "Still had a ton of leftovers that just don't take the same heated up in the microwave."

"Isn't Jersey a bit too far for that?" Liam asked, situating himself in his own chair--Eli had taken Swar's, "Like you would've had to get up at four or something?"

Eli grinned, "Fair point. And what about you, Liam. I'm guessing you didn't end up needing to spend break at Swar's after all?"

"Whoa, wait, what's this?" Matt asked, grinning, "You didn't go back home?"