The Music of KISS ("Keep It Simple, Stupid")

All writers want to be Shakespeare (and the louder they say they don't, the more we know they do). All musical composers want to be Mozart...or maybe Beethoven, or Bach, or Verdi. We want to create music of breadth and depth, sweeping vistas evoked through the ears of the listener and shaped into forms of beauty in their hearts.

In composing for the hypnosis and meditation downloads at Hypno4Health I have to say I've had my dark times! I have been disparaging of relaxation music in the past; it's structures are bare and repetitive, the harmonies are the most basic forms and melody - where it exists - sticks to the structure and harmony like a toddler sticks to Mummy. When I started creating the music I found so many opportunites, from quiet starts, to take the music away into unmapped realms, to carry the listener away to new countries in their mind.

And then Margaret took me through a meditation. And then I understood.

Music for meditation (and even more so for hypnosis and hypnotherapy) has to be simple, however hard that was for me to grasp. Meditation is simple - but for the beginner it is never easy. When we try to be still, everything we have ever learned from our parents, our schooling, our working life, tells us that we should be up and DOING SOMETHING. To keep the body still is hard enough: to keep the mind still and focused is real hard labour; at least to begin with. Meditation music (or whatever you choose to call it) can help to focus the mind, but only if the music itself is focused, simple, guiding the emotions just as Margaret's words guide the subconscious.

So I have learned the point, the benefit, and to a degree the process of creating simple, effective music for meditation - while at the same time learning exactly the same things about meditation itself!

Course, if you need music for a film, a libretto or just fancy having a symphony for a loved one's birthday or bar mitzvah, I'm open to commissions...!

Yours
Ivor.R

© Hypno4Health 2008