Go straight to Ambient Music Garden’s music here.
Hi! Here’s some new music from Ambient Music Garden for Spring / Summer 2008. We have a new category as well: Dark Ambient has been added to our collection and begins with two albums listed below.
New Ambient Relaxation Music
Asoma: Many of you have already listened and downloaded Asoma’s new offering: Spa Music which is two long pieces offered as an album for relaxation, mediation and therapy.
Lazy Hammock: Island Lover. Lazy’s latest warmed up offering is popular with chillout lovers. Island Lover brings some diversity and some gorgeous tracks together in a single chillout album.
Dave Ross: Half of Skywirters brings us a haunting relaxing dark ambient album named Midwinter. Cool for meditation and moody atmospheric ambiences.
The Colour Of Time: offer up their first full album to Ambient Music Garden in the shape of Neon Waves, A dark ambient collection that is the second of our dark ambient category albums.
Graphite: Graphite has three great new tracks / mixes: Mysterious Girl, I’m Me Again and Beautiful Nights to compliment his down-tempo collection here..and moving a little into ambient too!
Nick & Gerald: The transatlantic duo have created a new ambient piece called ‘In Absentia‘.
A quick reminder: last season we offered up Paul Adams and Dave Hoffman for the first time but weren’t able to bring you more details at that time.
For starters check out the New Age / Nature Inspired Ambient Album ‘The Property Of Water ‘by Paul Adams …
…and also Dave Hoffman’s downtempo ‘Prairie Skies’.

Click here and check out Ambient Music Garden’s music here.

An interesting article here about connecting music to counselling for the benefit of therapy:

I quote Dr Harry Henshaw: “If a therapist were to incorporate hypnotic work in his or her session the presence of therapeutic relaxation music would make the transition very smooth and very natural.”

Check it out here:
enhancedhealing.com.

This is an article kindly given to me by Errol Francis of Asoma Music who sells his music for download at Ambient Music Garden.

Thank you Errol.

Attune your Spirit & Putting Affirmative Words to Music

A Message from Errol and Lisa Francis

The Attune Your Spirit CD series is shared with you in the Spirit of Love.

We have been studying and experiencing how the universal laws, when applied (and also when they are not applied) affect the conditions of our lives. Throughout all this study and practice we looked for a way to really serve the higher Good.

Our personal family relationship is one of togetherness; we really enjoy being together. Our prayer has been to serve, together, while continuing to study and practice the Truth Principles. Our prayers were answered and we were inspired to share the power of praise, in word and in song. 

The materials are designed to make the listener/participant experience increased Joy, Health, Wealth and Happiness. A lifting up of the heart and mind occurs when both speaking and singing the same words of Truth, using both left and right brains. Daily practice is encouraged, in order to stay in tune with all the good that is everywhere equally present.

Our prayer now is that those who use this method, experience daily upliftment. That, with practice, becomes the new consciousness: a consciousness of joy, a grateful state of mind, and a song of praise in the heart.

Read on to learn more:

Let’s first take a look at the transformative qualities of music; then we’ll explore the innate power of the spoken word. We’ll learn why the combination of these is key to accelerating our ability to access the powers of the Universe.

After listening to a piece of music, just notice your feeling, and how does it make you feel? Usually music will make you feel more uplifted, more energetic, more alive and vibrant – and why is that? Let’s take a look at it.

What is music?
Music is sound vibration, wave, and frequency when played in concession or unison or harmony. These resonating frequencies impact the emotional centers into action or inaction.

As some of you already know, having learned from gurus and teachers, everything in our Universe is vibrational. We live in an ocean of motion. And we can also tell you that music transcends space and time, and is multidimensional. Not just sound, but the actual  movement of sound vibration in its  varying frequency, creating music, melody and harmony. That does something to people.

As music moves through our physical form, it is key to unlocking the emotional centers and also stimulating memory and nerve centers. One reason we know that music stimulates these emotional centers, especially for memory, is the effect of advertising jingles and sound bytes such as the Intel signature sound. Or what about when your favorite song pops into your head -  you are quite often  instantly transported back to a specific event. It’s not just an emotional attachment, it’s an actual memory attachment to that sound, to that piece of music.

Music strikes a chord within us. This is called resonance, when you’re vibrating at the same frequency or level as the music, it goes directly into our cellular memory structure, and then it’s easier to retrieve. Like tht song you just can’t get rid of.

An example of resonance: you could sing or hum a tone to a guitar or piano. You will find that when you sound that certain note, the corresponding piano or guitar string will start to vibrate to that frequency and will then re-sound it back to you.

We’re all like this. We find levels of frequency with each other, with things that we like and things we do not like. And this is how things are attracted or repelled according to the level of vibration. So music is very key in transforming  a lot of things within us. It can actually wash through us, and wash out our undesirable memory traits, and instill pleasurable and desirable memory traits.

Now that’s a very very encapsulated view of music as sound vibration.

Now when we attach the affirmative word, we add another component to this. We use words every day, some good, some not so good. When we use affirmative words in this process, we’re using a number of important laws. One is the Law of Mind Action, which is “Thought held in mind produce their kind.”  So what we want to do is keep a desirable thought in our mind action so that it produces the most desirable fruit.

The 2nd law is the power of the spoken word, which is “Ask and ye shall receive.” “In the beginning there was the word, and without the word, nothing was made.” So words are dynamic because they create. And speech is the very breath of God. So let’s see what actually happens when we speak. You take a breath and fill your lungs with air: which is light, the energy of life. The air goes through your larynx, which is the music box of the mind; it is a power centre or chakra: a very very powerful place. This is like a vibrational amplifier of thought. You are bringing that thought out of the unseen into the seen.

The other thing that happens when we say a word,  is our lips shape the words. Our lips shape this light vibration into word. We shape and mold the Universal Substance, which is the life force of our lungs through the larynx, or music box of the mind, and we shape it into words, and shape it into our world. So this is how we become co-creators, by shaping our own world, by speaking it into existence. So keep in mind, that even the not so good stuff that is sent out, must be transformed by denials or cancelled out because this also is going into our universal substance and is presented to us on a daily basis as our moment-by-moment experience. By combining your affirmations with the sound vibration of music, and by singing those affirmations, you add this powerful powerful tool to manifest your own desires, your own world, your own universe.

Since emotion is one of the keys to demonstrating our desire, we need to activate those feelings. This is where and why you can use singing.

I believe somewhere in the Bible, or somewhere in the mystic teachings, there’s a phrase that says, “Blessed are those that make a joyous sound.” Another phrase I seem to remember is “Those who sing pray twice.” So singing adds emotion to your thought.

If ever you find yourself in distress, simply hum. Simply find a melodic something to take up that space, and you’ll find yourself lifting out of that lower vibration instantly, just by singing, or humming. So singing adds emotions to your thoughts and words. And music opens up the emotional centers, and activates them into creating a link to memory. So we set up a triune vibrational energy field, which the Universal Substance responds to with yes, yes YES! So we have 3 elements coming together as one. We have thought, which is wave, we have emotion, which is pulse, and we have word, which is form. And when this all happens we call this coherency. Coherency is the action of stitching together, the harmonious connections of several parts, so the whole thing works together.

Example: We have a 100 watt light bulb. Now the light in the room if you have a 100 watt light bulb, will radiate that light all around the room. It’ll take that light and disperse it. But when you condense the light, say in a 100 watt laser, that laser can then cut steel. The difference between this is  in the light bulb, the light is diffused all over the place, it’s sporadic, whereas the laser gets all the light to work together in one stream.

So this is why series like Attune Your Spirit works so well, because it’s putting all that energy, all that light, into one area, so that the focus can be clearly defined. We can use the series for manifesting more Joy, more Health, more Wealth, more Happiness, for ourselves and for humanity.

In concluding, we have put together a series of affirmative phrases, and sung those affirmative phrases in a very joy-filled and uplifting musical sound scape. It is provided it for 4 main areas of life, which are Joy, Health, Wealth and Happiness.
I invite you to come to Attune Your Spirit and enjoy a sample of an Attune Your Spirit session.

Sign up for our newsletter, which features additional free MP3’s, articles and tips on living well.

Many Blessings to you now and always.

The Asoma Music Team

Check out Asoma Music here.

Creating Successful Relaxation & Meditation Music; Sound And Composition

Recently I gave a positive critique to a talented musician who had submitted a piece for my comment with regards its suitability for therapeutic environments. The piece was lovely, however had a number of points about the piece that inspired me to consider what elelements in my opinion make a successfull relaxation and meditation music piece. Here’s my opinion.

I must say I am not trying to be an expert here. After all, the therapists themselves know what works for them specifically within their own therapeutic environment and discipline, and with each specific client of there’s. Not everyone is relaxed by the same type of music. However, generally, and in my experience the following does provide a good list of considerations. Please let me know if you have any additional thoughts on this list.

Key Point: Consider You Are Making Music To Communicate With The Unconscious.

Unlike popular music (and others) that aims to engage your mind, relaxation and meditation music aims to connect with your unconscious, so less is more. Less Instruments, less notes and less melody as well.

Beat & percussion

Percussion has to be subtle if it even exists within the composition at all. A beat provides a link to your heart beat so if you introduce a beat; you need to be careful what heart rate you may be inspiring. A beat is also engaging. A beat can wake up and stimulate rather than relax. Percussion can provide ambience but once it forms a beat it may raise the consciousness of a listener at the time when the therapist is trying to relax a client and move closer towards unconsciousness.

Its great for sitting at home chilling out but my opinion is that percussion can be just a little engaging of the mind, its like it puts you on a treadmill in some sort of way rather than keeps you in a timeless space that other sounds can create. When I think of soundtrack music, the percussion comes up when its time to move on within the storyline, get on your bike and peddle. So, without percussion, I think you are left in a timeless space where the sounds bounce around a room that reflects nature and so relaxes.

A subtle introduction of a percussive beat can help to wake a client up at the end of their session. So if timed for the ending of a piece of music, this could be useful to suggest subconsciously to a client that its wakeup time and their heart begins to pump slightly faster.

To engage a listener in therapy music is something I am quite passionate about. Read on to hear more.

Sudden noises or instrumental chords

Anything sudden is definitely not right for relaxation. Don’t even think about it. It’s not even useful for waking people up since it is too much of a sharp wakeup call.

Choose your tones well to blend

Much like any composition arrangement you need to think about the collection of sounds that your instruments will be making. Make sure you take some time to spread out your sounds in the audio spectrum and so avoid making everything muddy and unclear. Conversely, don’t try to cram so much into the dynamic range that it complicates what is going on and is too busy and not relaxing at all.

Consider the sound of each instrument and the contribution it makes to your piece. Avoid high sounds particularly as they are not felt by most tastes as relaxing but are more stimulating (hence the use of violins in horror movies!!)

Focus on warm flowing low sounds before you layer on more specific higher sounds such as bells and flutes.

Instruments

Look for a set of complimenting instruments that are played calmly and not with passion. For instance, a violin tends to focus on high frequency notes and is often used to represent high emotions. Conversely a tenor saxophone can be relaxing but also arousing, both best avoided in our therapeutic environment. A bass, particularly a double bass can have a woolly ‘rounded’ deep note that doesn’t ask for a lot of concentration nor forces its clarity onto your mind to interpret. Distant flowing strings (as long as they aren’t too high frequency) can lay a background for other more gentle sounds to sit on. Bells and flutes can risk creating a stereotype but if used sparingly and not flooding a piece of music can offer up some melting relaxing feelings for listeners.

Sounds

Generally, people find the sound of trickling water a calming sound. Too fast a trickle and you might be inspiring someone to go to the bathroom instead! Likewise the sound of waves against a sea shore can take someone away from there current environment to relax but more stormy waves will raise their consciousness that they might be listening to an oncoming storm

Birds twittering, trees rustling both connect us back to nature and anything that does that calmly, like the trickling water above, will provide as good a relaxing feeling as a shot in the arm with something less natural.

The sounds of voices can tend to relax, however the spoken word engages the mind with its lyric which isnt good for keeping someone in the unconscious, unless you are delivering a guided meditation piece in which the objective of the piece is to take someone on a guided imaginary journey and facilitating this journey from beginning to end.

Melody

As hard as I try, I continually fail on this one myself. I am always looking for an engaging melody in my compositions. Therein lies the fault; therapeutic music in my opinion should not be too engaging. Avoid strong melodic pieces that connect with the mood of the listener too much. Consider ballads for example. They aim to express love and passion; too strong an emotional connection for relaxation and therapy music.

One needs to look at a composition in a totally different way from the aim of most music, which is to engage the listener and draw them in more and more into the flow and storyline of a musical piece.

Almost (but not quite) the opposite is required for therapy and relaxation music. You need subtlety in everything. You are creating an ambience, and environment for therapy and relaxation, not a soundtrack to the latest blockbuster.

Arrangement

A relaxation and therapy piece of music needs to not differ too much as it flows from beginning, to middle and then to end. It shouldn’t have changes in tempo, nor changes in the subtle melody.

What is important, and very useful for therapists is to have a piece of music that begins slowly and forms a relax-down for 10 minutes. This helps the therapist relax the client for the therapy. So a slow build of instruments towards a plateau where the therapy takes place, and then at the ending, a slow removal of instruments leaving the lower noted instruments ending last.

Duration

A 40-minute piece with 10 minutes relax-down and 10-minute wake up gives a client a full 20 minutes of focused therapy. Add more to the middle to give therapists options of longer therapy sessions but no more than 50 minutes in total is the norm, unless a therapist specifically requests it. For example, A therapist might be interested in commissioning a piece that flows throughout a longer introduction session with a client where he gets to understand them before then moving into a therapeutic session. In this way, a piece could be continually playing from when a client enters the room to when they leave. This could enhance the therapeutic experience considerably.

Lastly, all I can say is, give it a go. Don’t be shy. If you are a musician looking for ways to sell your music then music within therapy is a real opportunity. Contact me and tell me all about your piece and send me a sample. I promise to respond as soon as I can.

Guy

Click Here AmbientMusicGarden.com. The ambient relaxation & meditation mp3 download music site.

Here’s some more thoughts on the subject of composing music for therapeutic practice. Located at Dr Harry Henshaw’s Blog titled “The Therapeutic Nature of Therapeutic Relaxation Music.” Thank you Dr Harry Henshaw for this article.

Copyright Kesseny ltd 2008. All Rights Reserved.

Today the BBC published a news article commenting on the abilities of music to aid stroke recovery.

The Article states, “Listening to music in the early stages after a stroke can improve a patient’s recovery, research suggests.”

The article continues by saying, “The researchers compared patients who listened to music for a couple of hours a day, with those who listened only to audio books, or nothing at all.

The music group showed better recovery of memory and attention skills, and a more positive general frame of mind.”

Lead researcher Teppo Sarkamo, from the University of Helsinki is quoted as saying, “Our research shows for the first time that listening to music during this crucial period can enhance cognitive recovery and prevent negative mood, and it has the advantage that it is cheap and easy to organise.”

Read the full article at:
(source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7250594.stm )

M.E. sufferer finds therapy in Ambient Music Garden Music.

Music used as a form of relaxation therapy made a significant difference to an M.E. sufferer who found a particular piece of Ambient Music Garden’s music was the only piece of music she had found that helped her relax.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis or ME or Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is described as causing chronic mental and physical exhaustion in people, often who have been perfectly healthy and active previously. Trying to recover from such a condition when so little is still known about it is hard for many people across the world

The piece of music chosen by Jude who is suffering from M.E., was composed & produced specifically for therapy by Richard Scott & Dave Ross under the collective banner of Skywriters.

Relaxation music, especially long lengthy pieces that go further than the new age genre and are specifically composed for relaxation within a therapeutic environment are hard to find.

“Skywriters aim to mould absorbing sonic textures into an organically evolving musical architecture, transporting the listener to a vibrational realm, creating a purely sensory and non-intellectual experience” Skywriter’s Dave Ross commented.

Guy Lewis, founder of Ambient Music Garden said, “ Many of the relaxation music pieces at Ambient Music Garden have already proven themselves in therapeutic environments and within meditation groups. Other pieces are so new that therapists are only just starting to find them and discover the benefit of using music from the beginning to the end of a therapeutic session to enhance the therapeutic experience.”

Skywriter’s music is available to all therapist and lovers of relaxation music at Ambient Music Garden where their album Skywriting is offered as mp3 downloads in three parts or one continuous piece of music lasting over 40 minutes in length.

Check out Skywriters here.

Web: www.ambientmusicgarden.com

Email: via the Ambient Music Garden Contact Page

Last year I was struck down with a bad case of sciatica. Perhaps ‘struck down’ sounds dramatic but down was certainly my only direction under the circumstances.

Of those of you who have experienced pain that stops you in your path and incapacitates you, you will be able to sympathise with the inability to be able to do many things that previously you were able to do almost without thinking, such as turn your bedroom light off, or even, in many cases, think of anything other than the pain you are experiencing.

On one occasion I was laying across my bed, half in, and half stretching to get a book to try to take my mind off my pain when I grabbed my mobile and thought about some of my own music that I had transferred onto it a month or so ago.

I lay back and started to listen to some of the more flowing sounds within one of the tracks and started to feel myself go somewhere else. The fact I was going anywhere was so helpful because where I was, in pain, was somewhere I really didn’t want to be.

On reflection I realised how useful it had been to me to have music to help me through a bad time. I couldn’t have believed it unless I experienced it myself, its not as if the music stopped the pain, but was able to draw me away from focusing on the pain, thus allowing the rest of my body to relax.

So, for me, loosing myself in the music was a therapeutic experience in itself. Add this type of experience with a therapy and the results can clearly be fantastic.

Not Any Type of Music…

Someone I know experienced a Country and Western ballad as part of their massage recently. Perhaps to Country and Western fans this is the ideal combination but we have to understand this may not be the case generally (although a country and western ballad is probably a better choice that something with a faster tempo!!).

I experienced the result of a poor choice with music in a meditation group in the past. The leader reached over and turned on her CD player. After a few chords the whole group started to look at each other to see if we were all thinking the same thing. The music was similar to the organ style and sound of old English Picture Rooms, a little sticatto (stabby) and very , very corny. We all looked at the group leader and shook our heads. Fortunately for us (and her) she chose to stop the CD and reconsider her approach to creating the perfect meditative ambience.

As a therapist, if you have switched on to using music within your therapeutic environment, either before, during or after your session with your client you can find it hard to locate new and fresh music that does not provide your clients with music that is predicable and old fashioned. For example, not everyone finds New Age Music, pan pipes, shakuhachi and whale calls relaxing, indeed these types of recordings can be comical so some as they do have their own stereotype.

So, wind forward to the new world of contemporary and alternative therapy. A new and exciting place where new therapies are becoming more available and providing great choices for people in need and wanting to look after themselves.

As the therapies become more specialised, so does the music to support it. Ambient Music Garden’s ambient relaxation music is organised into a range of categories, which are growing regularly in number and contents. We are speaking to therapists on a daily basis and, as some of us are therapists too, we are developing new compelling musical pieces to meet the needs of the therapy market today.

If you want to know more about us and our music, please go to Ambient Music Garden and check out the music under each category.

 

Thanks for reading.

Guy