Chromatix Scales
"Okay, guys," said the man in green, "Let's pack it up." He turned around to open the trunk of his SUV, and placing his guitar case inside, he added to himself, "It looks like the world's not ready for Chromatix."
Earlier that night, Chromatix played their first public concert. The five guys had waited for this day for several years. Individually, they are Matt, Cory, Nick, Patrick and Evan, although they're better known by their nicknames Green, Red, Yellow, Blue and Orange, respectively. Together they are called Chromatix, arising from their distinct favorite colors. They've known each other since high school, and rehearsed several times a week in Green's garage ever since they formed Chromatix during Spring break of their freshman year of college, three years ago. Their intense academic schedules had prohibited them from further pursuing their musical career, but eventually they decided that they would take a chance and book a show at the local dive bar.
The week of the show, they all skipped their Thursday classes to rehearse for their performance Friday night. They meticulously arranged and rearranged their setlist, and practiced each of their songs for hours on end, with Green on guitar, Red on bass, Yellow on drums, Blue on vocals and Orange on keyboard. Green had expressed concerns that they would wear themselves out and not be able to play the next day, but Blue insisted that they continue; everything had to be perfect.
"This is the opportunity of a lifetime!" he exclaimed. "If we hit it off tomorrow, who knows how big we could get! Tomorrow's performance just might be the catalyst to our new career as musicians! Isn't this what we wanted?"
"Yes," replied Yellow, "but at what cost?" He held up his hands to reveal small red spots on the sides of his index fingers, "To quote the great Ringo Starr, 'I've got blisters on me fingers!'"
"Put some gloves on, you'll get over it." replied Blue, "Now let's take 'Bladder of Steel' from the bridge."
The next morning and afternoon passed by uneventfully. The band were still recovering from the previous night's rehearsal session, and were too anxious to do anything else but sit around and wait for the evening to arrive.
They mostly played card games and watched TV.
"Looks like there's gonna be a meteor shower tonight!" said Orange, flipping past the weather forecast, "That must be a good omen!"
Around 5:00 in the evening, the group did some warmups, playing through the intros to all of their songs so they would all remember the setlist order. Then around 7:00, they changed into their costumes and headed to the club (they had decided they would all wear clothes related to their color to reinforce the 'chromatic' aesthetic).
They arrived at the club and anxiously awaited their turn on stage. They would be the third band to perform, following an indie rock group from Arkansas and a prog rock group from California. The prog group finished their set to an astounding ovation.
"There's no way we can follow that!" protested Red as they awaited their turn in the green room, "Did you hear those rockin' bass lines? And the drummer's polyrhythms? And the singer's falsetto! We can't hold a candle to them!"
"Relax, Red," assured Blue, "We didn't come here to upstage anyone; we'll just play our songs and hope they like us! No big deal."
The stage manager appeared and told them that they'd be on in 2 minutes.
Blue motioned to the others to form a small huddle: "Okay guys, let's do this! Our time has come! Go team!"
"Go team!" the others repeated.
When the stage manager gave them the OK, the five guys walked onto the stage and picked up their instruments. When everyone nodded to Blue that they were all set, he turned on the mic and said to the crowd:
"Good evening everyone; we are Chromatix! We're gonna start with a song we call 'Drop In to Win'. We hope you like it."
Yellow held up his drum sticks and at an easy and steady pace counted off, "One...Two...One, two, three, four!" and began.
It started out as a relatively slow song, with a heavily reverbed and melodic guitar solo in E minor, backed by a simple drum rhythm and patient bass line. Blue and Orange chilled out on stage, gently swaying to the melodies created by their friends. After about a minute of soloing, the song switched to a vamping 8-bar phrase with a simplified version of the melody introduced in the solo. Green and Red passed the melody back and forth for a while until Blue chimed in with the vocals.
As Blue entered, the drumming got a little faster, with Green playing a series of power chords while Red continued walking the melody. At the end of every phrase, Blue's vocals were mimicked in Green's guitar line, harmonized by thirds. Orange stood by, tapping his feet as he waited for his entrance. Meanwhile, the crowd seemed to be really into their music, entranced by the flanging guitar chords and Blue's vocals soaring above them.
Before the final verse and chorus, Orange entered on the keys with his own solo, a variation of the main melody. At the end of the solo, the five of them kicked it up a notch, going into double time for an intense, fast-paced race to the finish. The crowd went wild as all five rocked out their anthem.
During the middle of the final chorus, however, Yellow lost a grip on his drum sticks. He had forgotten to bring another pair, and frantically debated whether or not to reach down for it or continue playing with just one stick. The crowd sensed his panic and noticed the drop in his drumming, and instantly became disinterested. They started yelling and jeering, and their attitude caused a positive feedback loop in which Chromatix lost more self confidence as the crowd continued booing them.
In a last minute effort, Green decided to take center stage with a frantic solo designed to play off the new drum beat. It fooled the audience for a few bars, but after seeing Yellow reaching down for his drumstick, they realized it was not supposed to happen and continued booing them off the stage.
They ended their song with a rather confident final chord, but the crowd would not have any of it.
"We are Chromatix! Thank you!" yelled Blue.
"Get off the stage!" replied someone from the audience.
The guys grabbed their instruments and headed for the door.
"Sorry guys," said the stage manager as they passed him, "better luck next time."
"There won't be a next time." said Red dejectedly, his bass slung across his back.
They made it to the parking lot and hauled their equipment to the car.
"Okay, guys," said Green, "Let's pack it up." He turned around to open the trunk of his SUV, and placing his guitar case inside, he added to himself, "It looks like the world's not ready for Chromatix."
He looked up and noticed a light cut across the sky.
"Oh!" said Orange, "The meteor shower is starting!"
They all gathered round the car and admired the skylights. They watched the sky fill with streaks of yellow, orange and red. And then green. Followed by blue.
"What's with those meteors?" said Yellow, "I may be colorblind, but your faces tell me something must be wrong!"
"I don't know, Yellow!" replied Orange, still looking up, perplexed, "I've never seen green or blue meteors before!"
Just then, one of the meteors crashed into the car next to them, and it went up in flames. The surrounding cars' alarms went off.
"Everybody run!" cried Red, "Before a meteor hits us!"
"This wasn't in the weather forecast!" yelled Orange, running back to the club entrance, hands shielding his head.
Blue was caught off guard as he saw a blue meteor falling right towards him. He started backing away to escape its trajectory, but it seemed to follow him. Right before it hit him, he let out a yell that reverberated through the parking lot. Just in the nick of time, the blue meteor shattered into dust, carried away by the wind. He noticed a few other falling blue meteors also shatter from the sound of his voice.
"What?" he said quietly to himself, astonished and confused. He let out another yell, and, like the last time, the falling blue meteors shattered into dust.
"Guys!" he yelled to the rest of the group, "the blue meteors respond to my voice! You guys try it!"
Yellow let out a yell, but the yellow meteors just changed trajectory and started heading straight for him.
"AAAAHHHHH!" he cried, as he jumped behind a truck which burst into flame from the impact.
"WHY DO YOU LIE TO ME?" he yelled to Blue.
"Wait!" shouted Red, "I have an idea!" He slung his bass back to the front, and started playing off a riff. Just as he suspected, the red meteors shattered into dust. "They respond to music!" he yelled happily.
"Everyone! Get out your instruments!" yelled Blue. "'Bladder of Steel', from the beginning!" The rest of the group got out their instruments, and started playing the song.
Others emerged from the club after hearing the explosions, and started running away, screaming at the sight of the falling meteors. A few onlookers noticed that the group of guys playing a song in the middle of the parking lot were somehow related to the shattering meteors, and set out to help them. They grabbed the cables from their car, and pulled extension cords from the club, and plugged them in.
Immediately, their sound exploded ten-fold, and their effective meteor-shattering radius increased, saving the club from certain destruction.
"Don't stop playing!" they yelled from the entrance.
"As long as you don't stop believing!" sang Blue.
They continued their rock anthem, playing solos as needed as certain colored meteors began to cluster in the sky. The meteor shower lasted for 8 hours, at the end of which the band was completely tired out.
"You did it! You saved us!" cried the stage manager, running to them from the club entrance. Everyone else started forming a mass around the band, jumping and screaming and thanking them for saving them from the meteors.
"Thank you Chromatix!" they cried in unison.
On the horizon, the band could see the sun starting to rise. Green, putting away his guitar, turned to the rest of the band and said proudly, "It looks like the world is ready for Chromatix after all."