A few months ago Ally asked me to collaborate with her to create some music for meditation. I’ve never done anything like that, at least not with that intention, so I approached this with a little trepidation. I’ve never been fond of most new age music I’ve heard, so I felt a need to push away from that direction. What’s funny is my first draft had this synth sound I’d developed which was the epitome of the new age sound. Ally nixed it immediately, thankfully. Interesting how sometimes we fall into the very thing we’re trying to avoid.
As things progressed I started finding the right instruments. I found a beautiful harp sound in the GPO, which is a harpist playing harmonics. I suspect what I have done may not be possible to play on a real harp, because of the technical limitations of playing harmonics on a harp. But the delicate sound is just right for what I’m after. I’ll have to ask a harpist sometime about it.
I still had another synth sound fading in and out in the background, which also got nixed. Ally said she preferred to keep it to natural sounds, and she’s right. It just feels right in that realm. She also really reacted well to the breaths I put between some of the phrases, so I reworked it some more and gave it even more space. I think it could probably use even more.
It’s very simple, harmonically — it’s all white keys. I think getting too complex won’t lend itself to the intended purpose of the music. Hopefully I’ll be able to accomplish what Ally asked me to do, which was to take the listener on a sonic journey while providing a backdrop for meditation and relaxation.
0 Response to “Podcast #6: Meditation Music”