What is meditative piano? What does it sound like, and can YOU learn to play it?
Watch the video below to find out these answers and more! [9 minutes] (Or read on below)
WHAT IS MEDITATION?
Meditation is when you allow your mind to be fully present at what you are doing just now and not focused on what’s going on in your head.
Meditation is not something exclusive for gurus and their fans. Many people use meditation to clear their minds, stay mentally fit and get some stress off.
Playing music can be a form of meditation. And the purpose of meditation music can be to heighten your senses through increased awareness.
WHAT ARE IT’S OTHER NAMES?
Ambient music, relaxing music, mindfulness music, chill music, new-age music.
What is meditation music?
It’s a genre of music that emphasises tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm - it is therefore the perfect style of composition to have a go at - even if you don’t know much about harmony, melody or rhythm.
The key aim of this style is to encourage a sense of calm or contemplation and can be described as “atmospheric” , or “unobtrusive”.
Where did it come from?
Minimalism was a style explored by classical composers such as Erik Satie, he called it ‘Furniture Music’ he described as being the sort of music that could be played during a dinner to create a background atmosphere for that activity, rather than serving as the focus of attention.
In 1948, French composer & engineer, Pierre Schaeffer coined the term musique concrète and featured loops of collected sounds from nature and life.
In 1952 John Cage released his famous three-movement composition [23] 4'33 which is a performance of complete silence for four minutes and thirty-three seconds. The piece is intended to capture the ambient sounds of the venue/location of the performance and have that be the music played.
It developed into ‘Ambient music' in the 1960s-1970s, when the synthesiser became popularised and Brian Eno (Roxy Music) coined the term ‘Ambient’ in the mid-1970s amongst is explorations of the genre.
Throughout the decades many composers have explored ambient or meditative music and it has expanded into many sub-genres. Music for meditation these days often contains sound effects to help put you in a specific scenery - like nature noises, rain, birds, forest, wind, etc.
What does it sound like?
Listen to this Spotify playlist for a brief history overview! >>>
Why should I give it ago?
Because the emphasis is on tone and atmosphere, rather than traditional western ‘song’ elements, you don’t need to know a ton about harmony or melody to get started. The most important part of the process is picking the instruments that you will use to create that atmosphere.
What if I have an acoustic piano, and not a keyboard with other sounds?
You can still create percussive sounds and background ‘sound beds’ by using what you have in a creative way. The main thing that you will need is a means to record different ‘instruments’ and stack those individual recordings to play together - this can be done in a DAW on your computer, like Garageband or Audacity - or you can use a simple recording app like ‘Garageband’ for iOS devices, or ‘BandLab’ for Android.
You can then experiment with using the outer shell or inner workings of the piano to create percussive elements - even stroking or circular swirls can be recorded close up. Or use MIDI instruments within the recording program to create the synths, strings, or other atmospheric instruments.
So what elements does Meditative music need to have and how do I go about composing it?
For that, you’ll have to come to our coaching this month! Anyone who is in the Creative Pianist membership can come - if you’re not a member, all you have to do is go to pianopicnic.com/creative and sign up for a free trial!
Learn more about the Creative Pianist membership here.
