The family-PC classic — now it keeps time
MAKDI
मकड़ी · the spiderGood old Spider Solitaire. Every card is a note value — the King the longest, the Ace landing home. Lift off a whole run, King down to Ace, and it plays as a rhythm that fills its bars exactly.
Hear it:
Who is playing
Players
One phone, one deal. Each player plays the very same deal in turn — then the podium: a finished game beats an unfinished one, then the most runs, then the score.
Open a room and send its word. Everyone plays the same deal on their own phone — first to lift off all eight runs wins.
Got a word from a friend?
How you play
The deal
The bar the runs fill
How to play
- The classic rules. Ten columns, two packs. Any card goes on a card one higher, whatever its suit — or into an empty column. Several cards move together only when they run down in one suit. Build a whole suit from King down to Ace and it lifts off the table. When you're stuck, deal ten more — one on every column (never while a column is empty). Lift off all eight runs to win.
- The note values. Every card is a note: in 4/4 the King is a semibreve, the Queen and Jack minims, 10 to 7 crotchets, 6 and 5 quavers, 4–3–2 a triplet, and the Ace a minim to land on. Add them up and a whole run fills exactly four bars. Change the bar to 3/4 or 6/8 and the values change to fit.
- Fill the bar. Move a run that adds up to whole bars and it lands squarely on the next downbeat; a run that doesn't add up sounds lopsided — the pulse runs on into the gap.
- Ears, in four levels. Crotchets and minims; quavers; dotted notes; then 3/4 and 6/8. Each time you lift off a run or deal, the band plays a bar — pick the note values that fill it, in order.
- Who. Just me. Same device: everyone plays the same deal in turn. Online room: everyone races on one deal.