Slow Down, Mix it Up

With all of the upbeat, pumping music in our life, sometimes we just need to take a break. I don’t mean take a break from music; I mean to allow the beats to relax and soothe your ears for once. Our brains are like muscles. Imagine going to the gym for 10 hours a day, every day, for an entire year. Is it possible to even get past the first week? No, it’s not, but trust me, this is going somewhere. If you constantly blast your mind with upbeat music your mind will cramp up. That’s why muscles need massages and minds need slow music.

Everyone has their own interpretation of what “slow music” really is. Some consider it as anything in the “classical” genre. Others might consider it as a song with literally a slow tempo. Others might even wrongly think of slow music as music that is boring and doesn’t go anywhere. Note: This is NOT slow music! It’s what we like to refer to as “bad” music.

In my own opinion, slow music doesn’t fall under any of these categories. Slow music is music that induces relaxation and (almost literally) gives the brain a nice, well deserved massage. When listening to exceptionally good slow music, I find myself closing my eyes and falling into a trance. I let the music do all the work, rather than trying to listen in on everything.

I would not ever consider myself a “pianist” (though often I do play), yet the most common form of music that really induces this relaxation to me is piano music. I sometimes even find my fingers patting along my side as if I actually am able to play the chart I’m listening to. (ha)

Misty is a very well known jazz piece. It has to be one of the most recurring cover songs, or original songs changed and performed by other artists, that I have ever heard. This specific rendition is a piano (with bass accompaniment) by Will Foraker and “Da Bologne” in a cover band called “B4”.

There’s just something about hearing a familiar tune arranged for piano, or as any slow jazz tune. I’m pretty sure you could take any song at all, from pop to death metal, and turn it into one of the most beautiful arrangements you’ve ever heard.

Surprising?

Unbelievable?

I have PROOF!

I know that most of you have never heard of “Misty” before, so I’ll demonstrate my point with more familiar tunes. I’m sure you all know of “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music”. John Coltrane took the melody and created his own rendition of what he believed it should sound like.

An online blogger named Arksino took did the same thing to a very popular song by “Tool”. If any of you know of Tool, you know that you wouldn’t associate them with relaxing massages… He took the melody and, all by ear, transposed it and covered it on the piano. Listen to the first link and then listen to what Arksino was able to do with the hardcore melody here.

This example itself ties my whole mess of a blog together. Slow music provides relaxation. You might love Tool with all your heart, but how did you feel after hearing Tool on piano? It was pretty dang cool right? Of course, I’m assuming that you took the experience the same way that I did. Slow music really does provide an emotional output unlike any other music. For me, this is induced through simple piano renditions or smooth jazz charts. For others, this might come from hearing soft words spoken by a beautiful singer. Give me feedback on what you felt after hearing the melodic renditions, and I might even be surprised at the range of emotion given by this slow music.