I wrote “Chartreuse Triplet” around 2010 and recorded this version on April 19, 2011 in my apartment in Gresham, Oregon.
There is not a complicated story behind it. It is just me, an acoustic guitar, and a tuning I liked playing around with.
The guitar is tuned to Open C:
C G C G C E
Open tunings change the way I think about the instrument because familiar chord shapes stop working the way I expect them to. You start finding sounds by moving shapes around, letting open strings ring, and listening for something interesting instead of automatically reaching for the chords you already know.
That is basically where this piece came from.
“Chartreuse Triplet” is short, instrumental, and unfinished in the way a lot of old recordings are. I had written it sometime around 2010, set up a camera in the apartment the following year, and played through a shorter version.
More than a decade later, I still like having recordings like this in the archive.
They are little snapshots of what I was writing, what I was playing, and what my life looked like at the time.
The Tuning
Open C: C G C G C E
From the lowest string to the highest:
6th string: C
5th string: G
4th string: C
3rd string: G
2nd string: C
1st string: E
The tuning gives the guitar a big, open sound without requiring much to be happening harmonically. Letting strings ring against each other becomes part of the arrangement.
This is not meant to be a tutorial or a note-for-note lesson. It is simply the original performance as I recorded it in 2011.
Watch the Original Recording
Chartreuse Triplet on YouTube
https://youtu.be/dPBtz1CSdBE
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I break down how I wrote and recorded the Maxwell’s Kitchen intro using guitars, multitracking, double tracking, effects, and GarageBand.
The Black Keys “Little Black Submarines” | Why Is This Song So Good?
https://maxwellskitchenpodcast.com/maxwells-kitchen-podcast/2022/05/27-episode-76-cody-maxwell-little-black-submarines
A breakdown of the chords, dynamics, arrangement, and guitar parts behind one of my favorite Black Keys songs.
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https://maxwellskitchenpodcast.com/podcast/song-breakdowns
