I’m now giving titles to my musical compositions, mainly because I have made so much music for One Mind Live I need quick file names so nothing gets lost! A leftover from my art school days, it was always preferable to have a non-specific title like “Untitled #1” and “Untitled #2”, so as not to persuade the audience and to let the art speak for itself. I also have a tendency to call musical compositions outlandish things like “violin rainforest with cerulean sci fi tinkles” or simply “zingy-thingy “. Now, at OML, we have so many music files that we need much shorter names that we can all recall the mood and style as well as streamline and cross reference our filing system. The piece of music I’ve chosen for June’s Monthly Composer’s Choice Bonus took ages to make. For some reason, I couldn’t combine the instruments correctly. I was really stuck and I kept going back to it, not able to solve the melodic tapestry I’d constructed. Finally it came to me when I awoke last week at 3am… “Guitars! It needs twangy guitars!” said my inner voice. “Yes,” I replied, “but it’s three in the morning!” I wasn’tSonic Glue – by Stephen Fearnley
Big Skies And Open Fields – by Stephen Fearnley
This music is a celebration of spaciousness – it’s a prayer and because I make this music in one session (about 5 to 6 hours). It’s a devotional exercise on my part, to compose for one mind live. Quite often, I wake in the morning before a composition and I have a sequence, a sound, sometimes a melody, or at least an idea. Usually, it is accompanied by an intellectual understanding as to what it is I’m making and this is also attached to a combination of emotional nuances. These emotions are not mine. They are coming from the music I’m hearing. It’s these nuances which determine the instruments I use and the tempo of the piece. Steve X
Whatever Space You Need At The Time – by Stephen Fearnley
Whatever space you need at the time When I can’t physically disconnect from the built environment (which by the way we put a lot of time into making and participating in ) there are 3 ways I like to meditate: Guided. Music. Silence. Guided. When you need to focus your mind intentionally – to be guided with EFT as well as a spoken meditation. Music. Sometimes you just need the space. Silence. Where you get music for a few minutes slowly fading away and coming back just before 30 minutes… the 25 minutes of silent-space is extremely soothing and trains you to explore stillness. Enjoy.
Power Of The Pentatonic – by Stephen Fearnley
What do the song “Amazing Grace”, the big ET music scene from the movie “Close Encounters”, Ancient Celtic folk music and the chanting “OM”Chakra scale have in common? They are all expressions and variations of the Pentatonic musical scale. The Pentatonic scale is perhaps the most ancient and universal scale we know of: It’s based on 5 notes (pent = ancient greek for 5 and tonic= tone). Its use in music is wide ranging from ancient to modern times. Heres a quote from Wiki: Pentatonic scales occur in Celtic folk music, German folk music, Nordic folk music, Hungarian folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, Gospel music, Bluegrass music, American folk music, Jazz, American blues music, rock music, Sami joik singing, children’s song, the music of ancient Greeceand the Greek traditional music and songs from Epirus, Northwest Greece, music of Southern Albania, folk songs of peoples of the Middle Volga area (such as the Mari, the Chuvash and Tatars), the tuning of the Ethiopian krar and the Indonesian gamelan, Philippine kulintang, Native American music, melodies of China, Korea, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and Vietnam (including the folk music of these countries), the Andean music, the Afro-Caribbean tradition, Polish highlanders fromPower Of The Pentatonic – by Stephen Fearnley