My daughter and I take our digital cams on our robust walks around El Cerrito and Berkeley. During one of these neighborhood adventures we spotted a beautiful two-tone spider weaving its web. Following the photo shoot, we did some spotty Internet research, and discovered our subject was a "Berkeley Garden Spider."
Its very special picture became the source of inspiration for a piano lesson.
Last year a few of my students learned Faber's delightful "The Crawling Spider," so I recorded the teacher part for you tube on one track, and separately captured the melody on another, inserting spider photos.
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You might say I ended up playing a duet with my Mac.
Here's how it happened piece by piece.
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Teacher Accompaniment:
Mac and Teacher plus spider pics:
From http://nature.berkeley.edu/~callobius/cbcstuff/common_spiders/big_spi_quilt.html
Araneus diadematus
Family Araneidae
"Cross orbweaver," "Garden spider"
"Another European invasive, this spider can become quite imposing in size and density in the late fall. Makes a large vertical orb-web."
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Ironically, the cute spider turned up in the alleyway of my apartment complex.
