Enigmatic

An improvisation on the "enignatic scale." I'm playing the electric guitar; my wife Eberle Umbach is playing a cocktail drum kit.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• enigmatic
• scale

[rfrostbanjo]

This song also elicited a response that was so over-the-top snarky that I deleted it & enabled comment moderation. Here's a rhetorical question: whatever happened to the idea of creative people supporting each other rather than seeing who can be the snarkiest. Like the old joke: how many guitarists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 6-1 to screw it in & 5 to say they could do it better. & you could multiply that 5 by a pretty high figure, sad to say.

[rfrostbanjo]

OK, this song has elicited a couple of pretty neagtive responses & I thought I should at least respond in general to the idea that the enigmatic scale is “not actually meant to be played.” In fact, Giuseppe Verdi used this scale in his 1889 "Ave Maria (sulla scala enigmatica)," & the scale was used by guitarist Joe Satriani in his piece "The Enigmatic" from Not of This Earth (1986). So if you don’t like what I did, that’s one thing, but to say it shouldn’t be done period is misleading.

[esp1344]

the scale was made sort of as a joke dude..... it was a challenge to try and harmonize it its not actually meant to be played its made to create dissonance and is almost completely passing tones

[rfrostbanjo]

@esp1344 It was actually created not as a "joke" but as a "puzzle" in order to see if it could be harmonized--which is one reason that I'm playing chords in the middle section--to harmonize it. There are a lot of scales that are played--including some forms of the blues scale--that could be said to be almost all passing tones.

[rfrostbanjo]

Thanks so much for your kind comments shredcity & juliouus-- very much appreciated.

[Su25Rafael]

the atmosphere the scale (and your playing, of course) sets is fantastic. Reading terror books while listening to this - quite an experience...

[xcaluhbration]

Whoa... Ive never heard of this scale before, perhaps ive heard it before but I mean, wow. Thanks for posting this man its really surreal to listen to and really inspires me to keep practicing hard.

[7000ironman]

thats a weird scale, man i gotta tell ya whoaaa!!

[guitarteacheruk]

Really enjoyed that, thank you!

[nickholydiver]

Like your sound man. Greetings from Greece!