Ok, so its not as interesting as the topic might lead you to believe.
I borrowed an old Mahavishnu Orchestra song book off a friend this week and found some interesting things inside. Namely some notes on the song ‘ Awakening ‘ which I found interesting, although not surprising.
The top of the page has a little note;
Ad Lib solos; based on *astrological sign of individual soloist.
Then down the bottom theres a list which continues like so;
*According to ancient Egyptian mythology, the corresponding keys (pedals) were assigned to the following astrological signs.
Areis Db (me) , Cancer Ab , Libra D , Capricorn G , Taurus Eb , Leo Bb , Scorpio E , Aquarius A , Gemeni F# , Virgo C , Saggitarius F , Pisces B .
So anyway, thats all the info they give us, and as you can imagine (if you don’t have the song that is) they take solos and each person has a different pedal tone to improvise with.
The point of bringing this up, by the way, was just to see if people agree or disagree with the Egyptian choice of pedal vs astrological sign. In other words, do you feel most comfortable being labeled with one pedal tone or would you prefer to improvise over another?
Personally I have always been partial to the key of Eb, and yes an Eb pedal isn’t the same as playing in the key of Eb, but still. I’m wishing I was Taurus right now š
Mike.
out.
.
