Category: Music

  • Outside at Night: Singing

    these are my humble attempts to share beauty in a world that can be very unbeautiful

    green and yellow music

  • Walking Together

    Green and Yellow Music

  • Outside at Night

    the first in a series inspired a summer of saxophone adventures in michigan, indiana, and illinois

    green music

  • Guide to the Next Generation of Recorded Music of Michael Scott Gayle

    Among the struggles that I have had over the years is to know what genre is a best fit for my music. I have come to the conclusion that there is not one single genre, or even several genres, which adequately describe or characterize my music, specifically with respect to intent. At the same time, I understand that it might be confusing for any given consumer of my music to know, based on something like an album cover or a song title (etc.), what they are getting themselves into before pushing the play button. I feel like I should provide some idea, in advance, of what might be the listening experience. 

    Consequently, a listening guide is offered here as a kind of [genre or descriptive] reference for my music. It is a good faith attempt to characterize the music without losing the sense that what matters even more that genre is that the music is authentic to itself and to the audience as a spiritual experience. Hence, music produced after September 1, 2025 will be labeled by color according to the following characterizations:

    Blue – Easy listening, including hymns, gospel songs, and popular music

    Green – Improvisational music that derives from mostly from traditional Western harmonic forms and styles

    Yellow – Experimental music that spans and/or resists genres and styles

  • I Can’t Get Started

    For my one and only ♥️ (with apologies to Gershwin)

    I’ve flown around the world in a plane
    My tunes are played in Paris and Spain
    Symphonies I have charted, but I can’t get
    Started with you

    Around the golf course I’m under par
    On every stage they say I’m a star
    I’m on the top at the showplace , but I get no
    Place with you

    You’re so supreme, lyrics I write of you
    Scheme, just for a sight of you
    Dream, both day and night of you
    And what good does it do?

    In 1985 I sold short
    At Wimbledon, I won on the court
    But now I’m downhearted, cause I can’t get
    Started with you