Ernie's Shuffle on Ten

This is a work in progress. I made some samples of a set of Ernie Ball Super Slinky guitar strings and used them in this piece. The scale is based on the overtones in the tonality diamond starting on the 8:5, but with the 1:1 in the bass. So that makes the following ratios:

1:1 21:20 11:10 6:5 13:10 7:5 3:2 8:5 9:5 28:15 2:1


Then I derive some six note scales from that scale. The first one I tried uses scale degrees 1 6 9 4 8 2, which is two fourth chords stacked up. The ratios are:

1:1 7:5 9:5 6:5 8:5 21:20.


Here's the whole matrix of the ten notes from which the six at a time are chosen.


There are nine other 6 note chords to go, but I started with this one because it has so many low numbered ratios. And it sounded sweet on my keyboard with an electric piano sound. With these close mic'ed string sounds, the character is quite different.

I've scored the piece so far for the Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings, finger piano, balloon drums and tube drums. I will have to add a melody instrument at some point. Consider this the vamp for now, waiting for the lead singer to start. It has a kind of Devo vibe to it now.

The rhythm is combinations of 2 & 3 to make seven. For example: 2 + 2 + 3 or 2 + 3 + 2 or 3 + 2 + 2. These measures are combined into groups to make a five measure unit. I change the randomization for each of those units from highly repetitive to not repetitive. Kind of like: repeat a phrase 5 times, then go crazy, then repeat a phrase 5 times, then go crazy.

Lots more to do, but it sounded good enough for now to post.

Play it here

or download this link

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