video: Spyderico
What is there to say about this tune. An original composition of mine. The title has a bizarre story behind it.
One night after a gig (say 02:30) I was at Denny’s getting some chow, and I ran into some guys I had gone to high school with. This would have been in the late 80’s. They were in a state of chemically-enhanced consciousness when I met up with them, and it created a degree of exuberant behavior. This culminated in a series of what I suppose you’d have to call dance moves, demonstrated for the benefit of the patrons of Denny’s (who geenrally seemed to appreciate the show). One of the guys would call out the move, and the other guy would perform it. One of the moves they did was “Spyderico,” which entailed making the spiderman-stlye web shooting hand gesture while crouching and attempting to walk around. You kind of had to be there I suppose, but it made a lasting impression on me. A couple more were the “fetus” and “the claw.” They would shout these out and then act them out in front of everyone (and the place was pretty busy).
Years later when I was working out my diminished scale, I wrote this little tune, and the shape of the melodic line for some reason made me think of these guys in Denny’s that night. I have no idea what spyderico actually means. There’s a knife called Spyderco, and a web spider called spiderico. I always figured it should be spelled with a y, no telling why.
You probably won’t go home humming this melody, but it’s got a nice beat and you can dance to it. This is a first take, and I am posting it in spite of some “defects” because it has that first take vibe. At about 3:00 my daughter marches up and starts complaining at me–it has a minor effect on my phrasing choices. I recorded the backing track myself, even though I’m midi impaired.
You can grab a chart here and sing along. If you ever play this on a gig, I’d love to know about it.
So the fundamental idea at work here is that the diminshed scale can be expressed as four major triads whose roots are a minor third apart. The melody outlines the four major triads C, Eb, Gb, and A, which together make the C half/whole diminished scale, or what I call the C7 diminished scale. The melody is built by outlining at least two triads within each phrase. But since it’s triads, it’s actually not terribly hard to play.
My solo is built using similar ideas, but I vary the phrasing a lot more, and I extensively end lines on the most “outside” sounding notes, and on upbeats where possible, to build the unusual feeling. I’m working on getting more major 7ths and minor ninths into my lines for even more disjointed sound.
Comment by Rob — February 19, 2007 @ 7:57 pm