A Breakdown of Frank Zappa’s “Alien Orifice“

Taking a look at Frank Zappa’s incredible composition, “Alien Orifice“ and trying to examine the compositional techniques he uses. I also show how the tune differs between recordings (there are actually a lot more differences than you’d think). Follow me on Instagram: Stuff I talk about in this vid: 0:00 Intro 0:53 Chords 2:28 Modal Center Switching 3:43 m7/M7 Half-Step Movement 7:10 Constant/Deviation 10:14 Common Tones 11:30 Main Theme Melody 19:28 Nested Tuplets 20:36 How Is The Theme Presented? 21:16 Bass Ostinato 22:35 Main Theme Harmony 24:20 First Solo 27:00 Pre-Guitar Solo Interlude 30:37 Guitar Solo 45:41 Post-Guitar Solo Interlude 57:14 Demystifying FZ’s Odd Time Phrases 1:00:17 Post-Guitar Solo Interlude (pt. II) 1:11:57 Section C 1:27:17 Final Main Theme 1:34:05 Outro I’m also really stupid and misspelled “demystifying“... apologies for t