Chris Van Scyoc - Spinning in Circles

Spinning in Circles

This one came about while I was teaching guitar lessons at Lebanon Valley College during the summer of 2005. I had an hour break that evening, so I picked up my Takamine and started playing away in one of the practice rooms. I've always loved the music rooms at colleges. They're stark and basic: painted-white cinder blocks, a chair (love those simple-sturdy wooden chairs - the greatest chairs for playing guitar), and a piano. The main verse groove in 5/4 was coming out strong, so I put that down on my ever present tape recorder. The chorus just followed naturally as I kept jamming on the verse. I did my "emotional riffing" and mumbled as many words and phrases as the moment allowed. I remember settling on the lyrics for the chorus that night. I had the title and phrasing! It was a solid start.

From there, I recorded the basic rhythm traack with Steve McCall (drums)and Mike Bitts (bass)during our sessions of August 2005. Steve really nailed the groove and provided exactly what I was looking for. As Jamey Haddad spoke, "Man, that's a good, honest five. What am I going to add to that?!" I can't help it, folks. I march to the beat of my own drummer; but, mine plays in five and seven! ha ha.

From there, I took the rough tracks out to Jamey Haddad. I didn't put any guitars or vocals on it; for, I wished to give Jamey all the lattitude possible. This was the first song we worked on with Jamey. He put down the intro. Cranked it right out and just blew me away!

After Jamey's prelude, the intro is a pattern in 10/8 that simply follows the pattern: a, ab, abc, abcd, abcde, abcdef, abcdefg, etc... The intro bookends the song but as a mirror image.

Chris Van Scyoc
Email: contact@chrisvanscyoc.com
Phone: 717-832-3397
Box 375 - Palmyra, PA 17078