Guitarist, Composer, Instructor
Yep, “Smoke on the Water,”… Deep Purple, the metal band…relaxing! Remember to some heavy metal IS relaxing in itself. This song, however, is not very heavy at all and its sound would be generally accepted by anyone as relaxing. Your mom would like it! It gets a wee heavy in the middle but that ‘contradiction’ […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax, Deep Purple, “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming”"
It has been a while since I’ve done a “Music to Relax,” post. But the time has come and Happy 2014 to those of you who’ve been holding your collective breaths waiting for the next piece of music to slow your heart rate and send you into musical Nirvana. After a 3 mile run and […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax, Queensryche, “I Will Remember”"
This is one of Debussy’s most popular pieces. “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.” Impressionist music was often dreamy in nature and this piece fits right in that category. The dreamy quality of the melody is achieved using the whole tone scale. Whole tones on guitar are achieved by skipping on fret each time […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax, Debussy, “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune”"
Welcome to Spring everyone! I know for those of you back East it was an extremely rough winter. In San Diego not so much we had our bits of rain and frost, but, also plenty of 70 degree plus days, as well. (Shameless plug, “Sunny & 70“) Thought I would honor the first day of […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax, Spring has Sprung, Copland “Appalachian Spring”"
In the past, I have written about relaxing music and what makes it relaxing. The words that I come up with over and over again are spacing and open-ness. Most of my previous posts focused on these traits in regards to the harmonies(chords) and rhythms. In ‘Un Bal,’ Berlioz uses another technique in addition to […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax, Berlioz “Un Bal,” From “Symphonie Fantastique”"
Hope you are all having a great Friday evening! Coming off a vacation I am having a nice relaxing evening at home. Well actually I have been working so far, but, I am relaxed. Here is a cool-funky-chill song from guitar legend Joe Satriani. Enjoy and relax, especially all you sports fans gearing up for […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax, Friday Edition, Joe Satriani"
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving vacation. Getting back to the work grind is going to be tough this week especially for those of you lucky enough to have had some time off for the holiday. Once again my friends I am here to help you chillax and set an aural soundtrack to get you […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax – Ravel, Pavane Pour une Infante Defunte"
Once again, I had the pleasure of performing at Orfila Vineyards and Winery in Escondido. This time the day after Thanksgiving. I really didn’t know what kind of crowd to expect. Would everyone stay home? Be burned out? Turkey hangover? Shopping? Well, the first sign it was going to be a nice crowd was there […]
Alright, most of you are going to think I am insane! Fight was a 90s heavy metal band formed by Judas Priest singer Rob Halford. They were not a thrash metal band like Metallica but very heavy nonetheless. In addition to Halford’s powerhouse vocals Fight always had great, very crunchy very musical guitar riffs. I […]
Continue reading "Music to Relax! Fight, “Reality, a New Beginning”"
Hope everyone had an easy Monday! Regardless you might want to unwind a bit and I am here for you. This issue of ‘Music to Relax’, features the impressionist composer Debussy’s piano work “Arabesque.” Debussy wrote a pair of these and this is the 1st one. The music of the Impressionist period began near the […]
Mike Slayen ~ Guitarist 