Steel Guitar, Darbukas, and a Belly Dancer

Mat Rhodes · Post by **Mat Rhodes** » 11 Jan 2013 9:33 pm

This is an improvised composition that we did at Earthbound Trading Co., a hippie-type store in a Houston mall. I don't normally play New Age-y eastern music, but this was fun and different. And having a dancer was a real plus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFSzR2kBvPg

Dave Alfstad · Post by **Dave Alfstad** » 12 Jan 2013 7:44 am

I loved that! It was aurally and visually mesmerizing! I would have never thought of using steel guitar for that kind of music, but it fit exceptionally well. I love the rhythm and dissonance of that kind of music. I listen to a lot of Flamenco, such as Paco de Lucia, Tomatito, Vicente Amigo, and the likes, and I seem to be drawn to music that has a lot of tension built up by using dissonant sounds. Additionally, the Phrygian mode is one of my favorite scale modes, but I have never tried to do much with it on the steel guitar. Well done! I bet this was a lot of fun to do.

Oh yeah, the belly dancer was very nice to watch too!

Mat Rhodes · Post by **Mat Rhodes** » 12 Jan 2013 12:51 pm

Thanks, Dave. Yeah, this was fun. Aside from the dancers, most of the drummers in our community only get to work with themselves and, on occasion, perhaps a woodwind player like a clarinetist. So it's nice to do something a little different with them from time-to-time. Lydian and gypsy scales lend themselves well to these kind of "atmospherics". I'm working with one of the drummers on some Turkish odd-metered repertoire and we'll see eventually how well that goes over. I give Susan Alcorn a lot of credit for the inspiration and vibe on this one.