Long Form Instrumental Music - Say what?

So I’m taking a course at Berklee College of Music on Digital marketing and it’s been the best decision I’ve made since I got married.  Of the many aspects on the course, the one we are looking at right now is: “Who is the market for music2work2?”

Unlike my fellow students who are marketing everything from start out rock bands to singer songwriters, club DJs and established music celebrities, music2work2 is less concerned with who you are and who you hang out with and more concerned with what you do.

We know that having noise in the background helps improve performance and we’re familiar with the Mozart Effect; it seems that the idea of music as a study aid is becoming more prevalent, this article in Teen ink that puts forward the idea that music helps with homework and we agree entirely.

So – where do you go to get this kind of music, and what is it called?  For my own purposes I classify it as:  Long form, instrumental music.  Long form because when you longer have the need for words, you free the music from the 3 ½ minute “song” structure that has been so dominant over the last 70 years.

Of course if you go and Google “Long Form Instrumental Music” it doesn’t exactly come up with a playlist.  You see, when I start looking at the current categorizations of this kind of music – they don’t exactly make me think of stuff that I would play when I want to work or study: New Age, Spiritual, Holistic, Jazz, Classical, Ambient, Chillout, Trance, Dub etc.  I’m listening to a piece called Language of Silence by Deuter right now – it was written to be used by Reiki healers but it’s great as a writing accompaniment.

Most metal heads wouldn’t be seen dead listening to a New Age meditation, but that same metal head on a deadline might suddenly find the same tones exactly what they need to finish. One of the opportunities that I see for music2work2 is to introduce people to a whole range of music that they might not have thought they would like - the challenge here is not the music but the nomenclature.

22 tracks – Music Curators Extraordinaire

As Charlotte and I expand our listening habits, it never ceases to amaze me just how much new music there is “out there,” and not just new music, but new and easy ways to listen to it. 

I’m listening to a perfect track called Natural Tune by Efterklang – it’s laid back – chilled and perfect stuff to write this post to.  Oh and you can listen to it too – go to 22tracks and select the Relax category – right here.

This is brilliant – it’s just like radio – if radio didn’t have the ads and was programmed by music lovers rather than accountants.  There are22 different playlists from Contemporary to Latin, Dubstep to Worldgrooves – each area has a curator who selects 22 tracks and you just click and listen.  Each track has a link out to the artist’s website and a purchase link – genius.

The more I look at this model the more it makes sense.  There’s been much discussion about having an algorithmic approach to music selection – one of my favorite music writers Bruce Warila, is at the forefront of that (to my ears) quixotic charge.  For me - I’d much rather have a human being act as my filter; someone who really is passionate about music – who lives and breathes it – who writes about it and works with it and who spends hours of their time listening to and feeling it.  I’m not saying that one day the Kurzweilian utopia won’t appear but I’m guessing it’s a while away – until then I’ll let Venz curate my relax music and my hip hop too!

The Things You Find In Your Tush

I just found an old development track from 2003 – for the last 18 months it’s been sitting in my iTunes library labeled as Tush by ZZ Top – along with 270 other tracks – thank you iDump!

[audio:03found.mp3 | titles=2003 Development Track|artists=music2work2]

I remember working on this track - it was before I had begun to develop the idea of music2work2 and I was just busy at the keyboard; playing, writing, recording.  I wasn’t concerned with form - I was more interested in how I could write different tracks on top of the other and I would play for as long as possible to give myself enough “runway” to eventually get it right.

I’d set a click and then play the piano track – not really thinking - just playing whatever came into my head.  I’d then immediately open another track and play a string pass on top of the piano track, then another string pass and finally a melody track – in this case an electric piano.  The mix is pretty grim and I’ve lost the original individual wave files so I can’t really fix it – bummer!  I did mess with it a little before posting, which is where the image comes from.

I recognize a few of the themes in here – they went on to be developed into early tracks like 1218 and The Duel – I did eventually learn to back off the EP a bit but listening to it now – I’m kinda digging the use of the wheel bends – might have to incorporate that in something new.  For now –I'm going to see what other gems I can find in my Tush.