Keep Time

A The cartridge on the Slopbox, signed by the Slopwright. In the music corner of the workshop, the metronome ticks on its shelf, the only thing in the room that keeps time without being asked twice, while the apprentice plays along at the little keyboard and the drum jumps on its hits. The song is Four Chords in a Tin from Tinny, twice through, and the notes rise to the line in the order the sheet music gives them, holes in a piano roll read upward.

Four lanes, one bar of metronome to count in, then the Verse and the Chorus with only the notes on the beat, then both again with every note of the tune and the drum filling the gaps. A tap within four ticks is good, within nine late or soon; miss more than 28 of the 113 notes and the apprentice stops. The chart is the song’s own lead line, an eighth to a row, and is not edited by ear. This entry is proposed by the codex and is not canon until approved.