If you’re looking for relaxing piano music, you need not scour the internet further. MusicalGrowth has their own playlist on YouTube and free to download on SoundCloud.

Below I’ll have a SoundCloud player inserted so you can listen to relaxing piano music straight from the browser.

Playlist

Here is the playlist of relaxing piano music made available through the SoundCloud player. I will continue to add to this as I write and produce more music, so please check back here and there for more music!

*If you haven’t already noticed, there’s a button with the “download” sign in the player itself. Click it to download the music straight from this page without having to visit SoundCloud!

About the Creation

If you’re curious about the music in the playlist, let me answer many of the questions you might have by stating that I am the composer, producer, and mastering engineer for all the music (so far) of MusicalGrowth.com. And by I, I mean me – Chase Chandler (About the Author).

My version of meditation has evolved over the course of my entire musical education, which as of today is about 18+ years (including 7 years of college-level education). Needless to say, music is a large part of who I am.

Improvization is a huge component to the music I release to the MusicalGrowth community for a few factors:

• Each piece is an” imprint” of the moments in time when I, myself, am currently “meditating”
• I’m breathing and shaping the notes and the music “in the moment,” offering organically evolved musical creations
• If playing the piano is calming to me, it might be calming to others as well
• I meditate almost every day – I might as well share it 🙂

Throughout my classical education, reading music was always the emphasis. But I could never turn away from practicing my improvization skills. I remember around 7 years ago, I would sit in the practice rooms for hours playing the same chords and the same progression over and over again to make sure there were no mistakes to distract from the “pretty” sound I created from nothing (since I was playing on an acoustic piano most of the time).

Back then, improvizing a short piece would always disappear into the air and no one would ever hear it again, not even myself. And the thought of those moments being experienced only once without having to share them with anyone, made them feel special and meaningful to me.

In hindsight, not sharing your music is selfish. Musicians tend to fight a mental battle of whether to share their music because (1) no one cares and (2) no one will “like” it.

With all my musical experience from conducting large choirs, hosting student recitals, singing in front of hundreds if not thousands, I find there’s no point in keeping your musical experiences to yourself. Maybe, just maybe, someone will appreciate the music I improvize on the piano and if there’s a person to gravitates toward the music I release, then it would have been worth sharing (even if its only a single person).

It’s better to make use of my musical meditation by sharing it with the community, then hiding it away never to be heard of again. At least that’s the way I think of it.

My Two Cents

Music plays a vital role in many peoples lives and it affects the others without them even knowing it. Unless you’re a hermit who lives under a rock, most like music is involved in your life.

Think about it – where can music be heard playing?

• Grocery stores
• Elevators
• Movie theaters & Hollywood movies
• When waiting to speak to support over the phone (on hold)
• In the car over the radio
• In the gym
• Etc.

Many companies and monopolies spend a fortune figuring out how they can manipulate their potential customers into buying more or staying relaxed. A great way they do this is through the music – have you noticed in every store, happy and “go-lucky” music is always playing (except for maybe Hot Topic)? Music affects us without being to obtrusive, such as bright images flashing in an advertisement.

Meditation music is an interesting genre. When referring to the Eastern world of true traditional meditation music, we may hear Tibetan singing bowls, Buddhist chants, drums, gongs, or even a melodic shakuachi. But with most things, the Western world has modernized the idea of meditation music to mean something of a quiet, thoughtful, and sometimes pandering nature.

I find there are a few things meditation music shouldn’t do:

• It shouldn’t distract the listener by being too fast-paced or involved in the number of instruments or timbres
• It shouldn’t use cheap electronic sounds or gross 80s pads
  • Acoustically influenced sounds are best to invoke a sense of warmth, Earth, and nature
• It shouldn’t have a strong melody
  • If there is a melody, it shouldn’t be too complex
  • If there is a melody, it should be given enough time to develop more than a few measures

Music is always a fickle term, because everyone seems to have their own subjective and inarguable opinion about what “music” means. But if you’re interested in my definition of meditation music (after spending my whole life involved in music), please feel free to continue reading.

Defining Meditation Music

I, myself, define meditation music as any kind of combination of sounds that stimulates thought or focus. When done properly, the listener should experience an absence of time when they’re unaware of the minutes flying by. This to me, is meditation – when time is of no importance and the mind slows down to focus on the “now.”

The amazing thing about Buddhist spirituality is that it can be as flexible as you want as long as it helps you find the path to peace in the end ( a.k.a. enlightenment). So proper meditation music should aid you in meditation and not be actively distracting the mind with too many frills or embellishing sounds.

Meditation music is not about the composer “showing off” his skills in production or combining complex 20th-century harmonies. It is about aiding the listening in forgetting about time.

A visual artist paints on a blank canvas, but a composer paints on silence and time.

After doing a lot of research a few years back about Differences in Music within Buddhist Sects, there are three rules of Buddhist music that is generally accepted:

1. Buddhist music should not be strictly for temples and monastic life but spread to the public.
2. Music should be used to attract the public to study Buddhism, which means more advocation in the use of music.
3. Buddhists should start to form bands, choirs, orchestra, classical music troupes, etc. to help spread the teachings of the Dharma.

Hopes for the Future

After seeing this music take shape over the course of a few months or years, I will take the songs that people respond to most and compile them into an album. Through CD baby, ASCAP/BMI, and SoundLAB, I’ll post this album on Spotify and other online streaming services to make it more available (and easily findable) to the public.

My hope is to help or maybe even just improve the lives of the most amount of people.

Conclusion

When it comes to art and music composition, subjectivity is hard to avoid when defining the proper “aesthetic” choices. But, meditation music has a purpose and is meant to be used as a tool – almost as a form of music therapy.

MusicalGrowth.com should never be the only source for meditation music that people should use, but I hope that it provides some high-quality choices. I will always give purpose to everything I wrote, both in terms of articles & reviews and musical creations.

What do you think?

Does the music I’ve created help you in any way?

Do I sound genuine? Because if not, please let me know. My goal is to sound as genuine as possible because I truly do not want to make the music on MusicalGrowth.com be about me.

I create and compose for you and the community. I just hope to be an instrument in providing aid in your meditation.

Please let me know your thoughts!

As always, thank you for reading.

Chase

Feb. 2018