Viewing entries tagged
Sexercise

Sound Health - Advanced Brain Technologies

I recently ran across the web site Sound Health - Advanced Brain Technologies. Advanced Brain Technologies is a foundation created by Alex Doman and Brad Boyajian, for the purpose of advancing research, education, and development and access to neurotechnologies that will help people to realize their fullest potential. It is their belief that incorporating Sound Health into your life nourishes mind, body and soul. (Note from Andrew: No Shit!)

Advanced Brain Technologies

They have compiled a series of CDs designed to complement specific activities, such as Concentration, Productivity, Thinking. The music on the CDs are classical pieces, some from the Great Masters and some that were created just for this. Their research gave them the knowledge as to what types of music were effective with the individual activities.(Another note from Andrew: Talking of specific activities check out Sexercise) In addition to the Sound Health section of their work, they have other similar programs such as The Listening Program, BrainBuilder, Music for Babies, and Shelly’s My First Computer Game.

I like the fact that this web site seems to be very thorough; it discusses the research they did prior to forming the foundation, how the musical pieces are chosen for the various activities, and who the participating musicians would be. This is all particularly interesting to me since music2work2 was built on the same premise, that music is good for you and can be helpful in many ways. We spent many hours researching this idea before music2work2 got off the ground.

There are many similarities between Sound Health and music2work2. We both believe that instrumental music is more beneficial than music with lyrics and that the Classical genre is most fittingl. Looking at the notes that accompany each piece of music in the music2work2 catalog, you can see that music2work2 also recognizes the benefit of certain musical pieces with specific activities. In fact, I have been listening to 1218 while writing this post.

The Early Years - Part 1

This album covers the years between 2000 and 2005, when the whole idea of music2work2 was starting to take shape. My sister Victoria's wedding drove the initial impetus to produce something tangible - Arrival and the Anam Cara were both played during the ceremony. A little more experimentation and another wedding resulted in the development of Jax's theme. Sexercise was written for a workshop on women's sexual energy - I know - sometimes as musicians we have to make sacrifices for the greater good - and finally, Beautiful came along just when things were at their bleakest.

Click on the track title for liner notes, longer streams and 5 minute sample mp3s.

Arrival (17:50)[audio:arrival2.5.mp3 |titles=Arrival |artists=music2work2]
Anam Cara (1:28)[audio:anamcara.mp3 |titles=Anam Cara |artists=music2work2]
Jax's Theme(5:27)[audio:jax2.5.mp3 |titles=Jax Wedding theme|artists=music2work2]
Sexercise (30:57)[audio:sexercise2.5.mp3 | titles=Sexercise|artists=music2work2]
Beautiful (2:07)[audio:beautifulmp3.mp3 | titles=Beautiful|artists=music2work2]

iTunes - music2work2 - Beautiful   Amazon - music2work2 - Beautiful   music2work2 - The Early Years Part 1 at CD baby

---------------- Now playing: music2work2 - Beautiful via music2work2

November - 15 minutes 14 seconds

Strings, Electric Pianos, Bass lines and more.

 

$1.99 Download Now

Written in November 2005 – this track has a lot going on: piano, two string tracks, electric piano and bass. I remember learning a lot about my own composition style at the time and being very conflicted.

My natural approach to music2work2 is to just sit and play; Sexercise aside – I always start with the piano track and aim to leave room for any subsequent voices. I have an idea when I’m playing the first track what the other parts could be but I never really know until I’m playing them. This approach is of course anathema to the trained composer so I spent 2005 worrying about form and attempting to define structure and parts in advance.

I began developing themes in the traditional way: 1A, 2A, 1B, 2B etc – and played with various different forms –the end result – to my ears anyway – was lifeless. Oh sure – every part made sense, the music stood as a finite recognizable piece – but – it had no soul. It was a very frustrating time.

This track was the first time that year where I just sat at the keyboard and recorded what came into my head – no structure, no worrying about where I was supposed to go and how every part was going to work – the minute I finished one track I changed voices and immediately recorded the next, right on top. It has a flow that had been missing all year and I was mightily relieved when I went back to listen to it. Coming in at 5:10 is an early development of “Andy the Barman,” it’s a good story and will be told when the theme is ready.

If you like the track you can share it across your Networks – just click share on the right of the player.

November is part of The Thinker's Playlist.