Zappa.com

I'm relatively new to Zappa's music and I have a few questions for all the Zappa masters out there concerning a certain sound of his.

I dunno what to call these passages or if there even is a name for them so i'll just tell you where I've found them in certain songs...

Montana - 1:55 > 2:40
Inca Roads - 5:27 > 5:40 and 8:05 > 8:26

I guess its sort of a marimba/vibe lead with vocals following along if I could describe it...

Anyway my questions are...
1. Is their a certain name/phrase for these passages?
2. Did Frank 'invent' this technique or did he borrow/get inspired by another i.e. Verese etc.?
3. Is there a particular scale, mode or kind of guidelines that these passages seem to follow?

Thanks alot for your help

I'm pretty sure Frank invented that.

I don't know if there's a scale that htey follow, but in the case of Inca Roads, it's the main melody sung at the beginning sped up ridiculously fast and played on the marimba i beleive.

_________________
"Once you go black, you never go back."
--Thomas Jefferson

1. on montana, it's called a guitar solo
2. zappa invented the guitar solo; varese etc. couldn't solo worth shit
3. yes

_________________

I'm not talking about the solo but the part directly after it...

zappa invented the guitar solo??? youre kidding me right??

Robert Johnson invented the guitar solo.

Ah, but Charlie Christian invented the Electric guitar solo

_________________
"Once you go black, you never go back."
--Thomas Jefferson

Why Not.

OK whatever forget about who invented the guitar solo I'd really like to know more about this sound of zappas

I wrote that in some other section. The instrument you're hearing is a marimba and a singer. The fast little notes are called linear polyrhythms, also known as irregular groupings. they are bitchen hard to play, which is why you only hear them in Zappa's music and in some classical music.

_________________
"Once you go black, you never go back."
--Thomas Jefferson