*Originally published on Jan. 12, 2018. Revised Feb. 18, 2018.
No matter what you’re going through or how busy you may be, anyone and everyone can benefit from guided meditation online. Meditation has been a proven aid in the fight against stress, anxiety, and depression by many healthcare professionals (including Harvard Health).
On behalf of the community here at MusicalGrowth.com, I have personally created and professionally mixed a new piece for meditation that is available for FREE on YouTube (see the video below) and downloadable via SoundCloud.
If you’re interested in hearing the entire playlist I’ve made available on MusicalGrowth.com, I invite you to follow this link: Relaxing Piano Playlist.
“Musically” Guided?
Everyone has their own preference when it comes to meditation music, but what I find most alarming is the options available to choose from – for example, I don’t see any “musically guided” meditation music online!
What do you mean, musically guided? I find narrated meditation music can sometimes be distracting. As a professional musician of 15+ years (voice, trumpet, composition, etc.), it’s a natural habit to focus on someone’s voice rather than the activity. A few little things such as lisps, strange pronunciation, avid attempts to sound “smooth,” are all very distracting when trying to clear my mind. BUT, this doesn’t mean that I sometimes appreciate vocally guided meditation – there’s a time and a place.
I wanted to give everyone here at MusicalGrowth.com a chance to experience a different form of guided meditation. I hope this helps!
About the Music
I chose a tempo around 62 bpm (beats per minute) to allow for two things: the musical beat to land (relatively) perfect on every minute and so the listener’s heart beat would be influenced to slow down (the human heart beat is naturally around 60 to 100bpm according to MayoClinic.org).
I chose four chords and altered them slightly as I developed the music: Eb-Maj, C-min, Bb-dominant, and F-min. There are multiple layers of instruments – two piano sound libraries, an electronically modified men’s choral “hum,” rhythmic material on an acoustic piano, and a percussion track (combining metal and hide drums). Sound effects help fill out the surrounding (left/right) sound including bird sounds and ocean waves.
Listen via SoundCloud:
If you’re wondering more about the piano music itself, it was all improvised, which means it wasn’t notated and I wasn’t “reading” any pre-written music. To provide the most organic meditation music, my strategy is to create “in the moment” and build on a unique moment in time. For the last 10 years, I’ve improvised by myself, but the music produced from these moments in time are gone forever when I step away from the piano (since I usually never record myself playing!). During the making of this video, the music was improvised as per usual, but only this time, I record the MIDI information to enable playback of the material I improvised.
The piano (Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 Keyboard) records the information through MIDI data and Logic Studio X. This allows the notes I recorded to playback with the respective keys lighting up – almost like “player pianos.” Pretty cool right? And I would highly recommend this keyboard. I just bought mine and am completely mesmerized and in love!
More Music?
If you’re looking for more free guided meditation music with narration, you are welcome to listen to 30min+ of MusicalGrowth relaxing piano music. I’ve also complied a list of the best YouTube videos which you can read up on here: Best Guided Meditation – Free 15min Transformations. Are you curious about meditation music? Read up on Buddhist music or my philosophy on music and the body, mind, and spirit. Listening to this on the go? Don’t let noise get you down, because there are options to help!
Sometimes music isn’t enough and some exterior materials are needed to improve the inspiration of your atmosphere. I’d love to share some ideas about your meditation decor, or if you’d like to search on your own (or if you have ideas too) please share whatever you’d like with our community in the comments below!
Conclusion
Options are always nice and I’m so glad I can offer a new way to experience guided meditation through the YouTube video listed above. If you have any more questions about the creation of the music, you know I like talking music theory so please don’t hesitate!
If you want to request more musically guided meditation, I would be ecstatic! Let me know in the comments below! I promise to read everyone’s thoughts and requests.
Best of luck on your journey through guided meditation!
Until next time,
Chase
Jan. 30, 2018
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