Category: Family

Charles Ives, “4th of July” Listening Challenge

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How do we listen to music?

Seems like a silly question! We crank up our home stereos, car stereos, Ipods,  etc.

Most of us think of music as; I like it or I don’t; as cool or not; as good or bad. All very reasonable answers but represent a subjective view. They are opinions vs. analyses. For most people that is more than fine! We grow up with the music that is around us…if it makes us feel good we like it.

When I went to college to study music I was the same way. Somewhere along the line I realized there is more to music than does it have a beat and can I dance to it(or headbang from my heavy metal past). Music even though an art is also a science. Even though a recreation a discipline.

If you have been ready to try something different to feed your ears here is a great piece. It isn’t ear candy to the novice. It wont make you dance, hum, party, workout, clean the house…..etc. However, if you take the time to really listen it will offer you a chance to hear a different perspective on music.

Charles Ives was an experimental composer before there were experimental composers! If this piece reminds you a bit of a horror soundtrack, it was written before there were horror soundtracks! Ives was into creating sounds! Intertwined he liked to add familiar melodies that meant something to him personally. Usually these were lofty motives like Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, hymns and most of all pieces that represent America and Americana at the turn of the last century.

Take the challenge…put away your preconceived notions of what music should be and just listen to sounds. Also listen for the aforementioned American themes that Ives wove into his music the way others use major scales. Remember when you are listening that the composer was very pro-American even though the sounds may seem like not so much.

Go for it! I will keep more listening challenges coming…

Charles Ives 4th of July

Concert Ticket Sticker Shock! Save the Children

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Remember when Rock & Roll was ‘about the music’ …?

After going to the big Van Halen, David Lee Roth reunion show the other day I experienced some ticket sticker shock. The concert was a blast and my wife and I had a great night with some friends, but, really? Don’t they know the economy sucks? Well I guess it’s not that bad since people still go to concerts, and have Iphones and fill up their gas guzzlers…

Before I stashed my ticket away with a bunch of old concert tix, I took a close look. I am not one to complain about prices. I can either afford something or not, but, the dollar numbers really got me thinking…

The tickets were $79 each. So for me and my wife it was a $160 date night. Nope, there was a $16.50 fee per ticket on top of that. Okay now we are at a $200 date night which doesn’t even include dinner, trolley tickets, etc. Like I said…it is what it is and I can buy or not buy depending on if it is worth it to me.

But as I am putting the ticket stub away for safe keeping I took a look at the prices of some of my old concert tickets. All the shows I went to in high school, the tickets themselves, were less than the current $16.50 ticket fee…what the heck? How can any kid afford to go to a concert these days?

Some of my old concert tickets

Minimum wage in California is $8 last I checked. A Justin Bieber fan would have to work two hours plus just to pay the ticket ‘fees’, without the ticket. That’s not even accounting for taxes deducted from their paychecks.

So if a kid today wants to take a date to a concert at roughly $200 that kid would have to work approximately 33 hours. Just for a crappy mid-hall concert ticket. How many high school kids even work 33 hours a week? No wonder they rip so much music for free online. I always thought I would have to help put my daughter through college or help her buy her first house. Didn’t realize I needed to start her a concert ticket fund.

Guess the economy is not so bad…

Guitar Practicing Tips – A Secret to Changing Chords

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For you beginners out there learning to play chords you are going to love this!

So you’re struggling making that dreaded change from C to G!(or any tough change). What are your options….practice over & over & over…best option! Practice slow and keep your rhythm…great option. Get frustrated and throw your guitar against the wall…not recommended, condoned or liable if you do try it!!!!

The not so secret is if you keep practicing you WILL get it!

The secret is there is a ‘cheating’ technique, although it is not cheating because guitarists do this all the time. Even arguably the greatest rock song of all time Stairway to Heaven employs this method.

Use a strum that ends in an eighth note, i.e., 1 2+ 3 4+ where the numbers are strummed down and the +(ands) are strummed up.

On the very last strum, the up stroke of beat 4, take your left hand off the neck and strum the open strings. Use this ‘free time’ to get to the next chord on rhythm for beat 1.

So the strum would go 1 2+ 3 4-(open strum), 1 2+ 3 4-(open strum)

Try it out it makes life much easier to change your chords and sounds stylistically correct.

Good luck and keep at it…it WILL come!

Beware of the Pick Gremlins!

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My friends we are facing an epidemic! It’s brutal some would say unnerving!

Cool Skull Pick
Cool Skull Pick

If you play guitar with a pick, you know what I’m talking about. You go to your local guitar store drop a few bucks and, in theory, have enough picks to last you for awhile.

You know you bought a few of the cool ones with skull designs on them, a few heavy ones for fast picking and that one thin one for strumming some folk songs.

Get home and it’s time for a practice session. You start jamming then a distraction, maybe the doorbell rings. You put your new skull pick down in a precise spot on the coffee table so you remember exactly where you left it so you don’t lose it. You dispatch the salesman at the door only to return to your rockin’ out and cue the theme from “Psycho” as you look down and that shiny new pick is gone.

“What the heck!?, I left it right there on the coffee table…right there in the corner!”  Too late! …It’s gone…like a swimmer in “Jaws”, like a camper in Mike Myers’ neck of the woods, like one of Sigourney Weaver’s buddies in “Alien.”

Get a glass of water…Bam, another one gone! Go to the bathroom…ChaChing, your thin pick is gone! Picks disappear like crazy. Where do they go? It doesn’t make any sense.

Over the years I’ve come to one conclusion. There are Pick Gremlins amongst us. It doesn’t matter where you live or how careful you are with your picks they are gonna disappear on you.  You can even check your pockets and the laundry, but, they’re gone!  It’s the pick gremlins no other possibility.

For those of you who play guitar you KNOW what I’m talking about. For those that don’t…well you probably think all guitarists are nuts anyways.

Beware of the Pick Gremlins!

Guitarslinger vs. the Toilet, When is a Guitarist not a Guitarist

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Click the link to hear Ennio Morricone’s great composition for the theme song of Clint Eastwood’s, “The Good , The Bad and The Ugly.”
It will help set the comical scene described below.

The stars were aligned today. My family was out of the house and I didn’t have any pressing projects it was gonna be just me and my guitar! A chance to work on some music, clear my mind and make everything right in the world…like a workout does as it releases endorphins.

So, what happens… an evil varmint toilet in our house sprung a leak. I had to take action. I had to put down the guitar and pick up a wrench.

The scene was like an old fashioned western dual, two determined gunslingers battling out! If you can imagine the camera focusing on me with a menacing look on my face then panning to the toilet staring me down…back and forth.

For most of you, fixing a toilet not a big deal…but…for a musician who’s brain likes creative projects better than manual ones it kind of is. Not to mention these types of projects don’t normally go too good on the fingers.

No music in today but the towns folk are all safe!..and the bathroom is all better too.

12 NOTES & THE TRUTH!

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Our music is based on 12 notes!

That’s it!

No more!

“12 Notes & the Truth!,” this blog,  focuses on everything those 12 little notes offer.

These 12 notes not only make up the music of every band and artist we listen to but make the world go ’round, as well.

“12 Notes & the Truth!,” will cover anything and everything in music that strikes a chord

with myself and hopefully you, as well!.

Guitar music, pop styles, jazz, classical and the social issues attached to them all will be featured in the blog.

Expect a little high brow education,  low brow comedy and anything between that helps convey the world of music

in my head. Of course I will let you know what I am up to from time to time, as well, performances, projects, etc.

You can follow the blog:

from this site or on

Facebook: Mike Slayen Studios

Twitter: @mikeslayen

However you do follow come back early and often to check out “12 Notes & the Truth!” and feel free to comment on the posts.

From one music lover to another I will try to live up to these 12 notes and their truth.

Guitar Practicing Tips- Keep it Out

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Have you ever been walking around your house bored and say, ‘Ooooh I am gonna practice my guitar?’ You find that it is in the case, tucked in a room you never practice in and a full stack of junk on top. You know, just like your gym equipment….’Maybe I’ll practice later…’

It happens to the best of us!

One way to avoid this is to keep your guitar out of the case, of course you want to make sure you find a safe spot for it. Also keep it in a room you frequent so you can pick it up at anytime. If it is staring you in the face you are more likely to pick it up. If you pick it up you can get in a quick practice session. If you get in a quick session who knows it may turn into a full blown practice session.

Keep your guitar out, keep it protected and keep it where you can easily pick it up at anytime!

Keep practicing!!!