A Rhapsody for a Six-Fingered Guitarist

[Acoustic Guitar, Intimate] [Short Fingerpicked Acoustic Intro - rubato, warm steel-string with wide unnatural stretches, hammer-ons and pedal tones] [Verse 1 - Clean Electric Enters, Sparse Bass] Born with an extra knuckle curling on the left Doctor told my mother it was nature in a cleft Tucked inside a woolen mitten so the town would look away Said a six-clawed creature had no business in the day I found an ancient timber neck beneath the attic floor Stretched that stray sixth knuckle where no hand had gone before Found an octave in the basement, caught a chord nobody knew What they labeled as a defect grew into a point of view [Pre-Chorus - Drums enter, steady kick and snare, stacked backing harmonies] (Ah-ah-ah) They drew the boundary at five (Ah-ah-ah) They swore the blueprint was complete Told me seven different ways a crooked branch would never thrive [Chorus - Full band explosion, driving stadium rock beat, massive layered choir harmonies, thick distorted rhythm guitar] Oh, Mother may I, Mother may I let the sixth one ring! Fret the heavy bottom timber while the high bells sing! You can measure out the normal, you can mark it with a pen Call it clumsy, call it crooked, say it again and again We are heavier than iron when the treble booster screams! Mother may I take the hammer to their narrow little dreams! [Post-Chorus - Multi-tracked guitar harmony fanfare with impossible polyphony] (Mother may I! Let it ring!) [Verse 2 - Driving mid-tempo rock, pulsing bass, crisp coin-edge rhythm guitar] Walked into the music hall and struck a six-part chord Bassline walking down below while high arpeggios soared Notes were ringing front and back that no one ought to reach Counterpoint and polyphony no five-finger school could teach The judges dropped their pencils and the players in the row Started shouting from the benches that it wasn't fair to show Called it cheating, called it magic, said the game was rigged from birth Anything to dodge the craft and downplay what it took of work [Pre-Chorus - Rising tension, stacked four-part vocal swell] (Ah-ah-ah) They brought their rulers to the stage (Ah-ah-ah) They cried foul upon the sound Locked their envy in a ledger, spitting venom in their rage [Chorus - Massive stadium rock power, operatic backing vocals, wall of sound] Oh, Mother may I, Mother may I let the sixth one ring! Fret the heavy bottom timber while the high bells sing! You can measure out the normal, you can mark it with a pen Call it clumsy, call it crooked, say it again and again We are heavier than iron when the treble booster screams! Mother may I take the hammer to their narrow little dreams! [Bridge - Dramatic tempo shift, theatrical 3/4 waltz feel, grand concert piano and multi-tracked guitar counterpoint] [Piano, Theatrical] The boy stepped to the microphone and let the gallery hush: [Spoken-Sung, Theatrical Lead Vocal] "You spent twenty winters praying for my hands to fail Now you scream 'Unfair!' because the music tipped the scale? Why spend your breathing hours building fences in the dark? Why throw mud upon the canvas when you could have made a mark? [Grand Choir Harmonies Swell] Stop putting others down to make your little kingdom tall! Stop crying at the ceiling when you never climbed the wall! Take whatever breath you're given, sharpen up your own design— Bring some beauty to the morning instead of cursing mine!" [Guitar Solo - Virtuosic, impossible six-finger guitar performance: simultaneous 3-octave voicings, lightning-fast polyphonic counterpoint, impossible multi-string sweeps, singing sustains, coin-pick attack, screaming treble boost dive] [Hyper-Virtuosic Screaming Guitar Solo, Impossible Voicings, Multi-track Harmony] [Guitar Solo Outro - Cascading ascending 6-finger runs into sudden dynamic drop] [Verse 3 / Breakdown - Stripped back, acoustic fingerpicking returns with stomp-stomp-clap percussion] Mother may I keep the motor on When the bitter men have packed their little ledgers and are gone You don't shrink your reach so smaller hearts can sleep without a fright There is lightning in the valley, we are playing through the night [Chorus - Ultimate Climax, maximum theatrical power, full choir, explosive drums, driving guitar counterpoint] Oh, Mother may I, Mother may I let the sixth one ring! Fret the heavy bottom timber while the high bells sing! You can measure out the normal, you can mark it with a pen Call it clumsy, call it crooked, say it again and again We are heavier than iron when the treble booster screams! Mother may I take the hammer to their narrow little dreams! [Outro - Glorious multi-layered guitar harmony fanfare, operatic choir fading into solo resonant chord] (Mother may I!) Six fingers on the copper wire (Mother may I!) Carved out of the mantle fire (Build your own beauty!) [Screaming Sustained Red Special Guitar Chord, Slow Singing Vibrato, Natural Amp Feedback] [End]