Somehow listening to music while attending to the most mind-numbing tasks makes it all worthwhile. And we’ve all experienced that urge to perform the guitar solo for our favorite song. Or maybe you’ve noticed your fingers tapping along to the piano while you waited for your download. Amazing isn’t it? Those two seconds of pretend where you produced a magnificent piece of music for the entire world to hear? And just who said it had to say pretend?

With today’s innovations and the powerful reach of the internet, it seems there are no limits to what we can achieve. And given the right tools and steady motivation, your dreams of playing an instrument can become a reality!

Tutors at Your Fingertips:

Learning music is not easy. But it can become that much less difficult with the right teacher. Ten maybe fifteen years ago, you might have had to scour the land (or your neighborhood) searching for the right teacher. Someone nice, someone patient and someone available. Not to mention someone willing to take you on and someone affordable of course. And let’s not even get into trying to fit the music classes into your everyday schedule. Or rather fitting your entire life around your music lessons.

But thanks to the technology we have available today you can peruse whole lists of available tutors. And if you decide to take a break from your music then that’s not a problem. Because you can come back after a while and your music tutor can just take things from the top!

Sharing Your Journey:

The most difficult subject in school always felt the easiest because you had your friends to help you. If you’re just starting your musical journey you can share it online and find other amateur musicians who are maybe struggling in the same places you are. Finding a support group to fall back on for your problems is now just a few clicks away as the internet continues to bring people closer together.

An Ever Available Source of Guidance:

If you know anyone that can play an instrument ask them how difficult it can be to secure an audience to sit in for every practice piece. And even if you can beg your family to attend one of your mini concerts most of the time the critique you get are in the form of praises only for the parts where you were good. Maybe they don’t want to hurt your feelings by bringing up your short-comings. But most of the times they don’t have the technical training to tell you if you were off or the places where you could improve.

Nowadays, however, you can just upload your practice piece and over time you’ll find that there plenty of people willing to listen and critique your work. Knowing the internet, a lot of it might just be people trying to be funny. But you can also find genuinely enthusiastic people willing to help you improve.

Think of the Money You’ve Saved:

Learning and even playing music can be very expensive. Let’s add the cost of the instruments, the equipment required to fine tune your pieces to the money you would have to pay your music teacher. And already you begin thinking of a more affordable passion to pursue.

But now all you need is to find the best piano plungins that arecompatible with your computer and you are ready to go. And you don’t even have to settle for the available option that often comes with an unreasonable price. You can compare and try out different plugins until you find the one that is right for you. Especially since most of them are free.

All the Time in the World:

Welcome to a world where you no longer have to reorder your life to accommodate your practice schedule. Are you finding a hard time getting in a lesson in the morning? That’s fine. You can do it in the afternoon. Are you really a night person? Not a problem. Just finish up the rest of your chores, make yourself a hot cup of coffee and settle in for a satisfying jam session.

In a world where your music teacher can be reached at any time and anywhere you get to decide when to have your music lesson. And even whether you feel like having the same lesson over and over until you’ve got it right.

State of The Art Equipment:

Say you’ve mastered your music lessons and you’re friends and fans are cheering you on to write your own music. So you sit down to write your original songs but where do you record them? And don’t you need really expensive equipment to tune it? Not anymore. Now all the equipment you could need is available in a digital format and free!

You can just download the different software you need to record and arrange your music and start your very own studio in your bedroom.

A World Stage:

You don’t even have to worry about making multiple copies of your songs to send to record companies in the hopes that they will hear you. All you have to do is share your music online for the world stage and wait for the record companies to come to you. And if you have the talent then they will come to you.

And if you don’t find a big record label to back you then you can just produce your music yourself! In today’s world, an artist is not limited by the lack of a big label. Go ahead! Keep producing your music for free online and build your fan base. Pay forward a bit of what you have received for free from the internet. And earn thousands of fans in the progress.

The Sky Is The Limit:

Thanks to the same innovation that helped you achieve your musical dream there is no end to what you can create. You can start your own music channel, or you can turn out music tutorials. Maybe even offer critique and consultancy to other up and coming artists or even produce their music from your channel. The only limit is your imagination.

In Conclusion:

Music is the purest form of energy and inspiration. It allows us to share our favorite memories and bond over mutual experiences. Listening to good music is like taking a deep breath of clean air. Perhaps the only thing better is making music. Putting notes that float around in your head onto a piece of paper. And then finding the right instrument to help the broken sounds in your head become a symphony. Learning how to play a musical instrument is nowhere near as difficult and expensive as it used to seem. All you need to do is reach out and find the right place to help you achieve your dream.

The music industry is one which is always on the rise. With new artists adding their contributions to the mix each and every day, it can be very hard to find what you’re looking for when you want to listen to something new. Of course, though, this growth impacts the musicians themselves more than anyone else. With listeners struggling to find their tunes, they won’t be able to build a following, and this leaves a lot of the biggest out there to have to search for tools which can support them. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of the best examples of them.

Viral Marketing

As the first area to think about, the music industry is one of the biggest in the world when it comes to viral marketing. With this media being very easy to spread around, getting it into the hands of loads of people isn’t too hard, as long as you can create a craze to go along with it. There have been several artists and groups over the last few years who have been able to take advantage of the way content flows around the web. This will most commonly occur on social media sites like YouTube, as these places tend to have the most users.

Social Media Marketing

While viral marketing often occurs on social media, musicians can often take another approach using the same platforms. Instead of relying on huge amount of likes and follows, the most persistent are able to generate a huge user base through very basic posts, including daily updates and short blogs. Acting as an influencer for their own brand, this sort of method is great when an artist is first starting out. It doesn’t cost anything other than time, and the simplest posts are often the most popular, with some musicians getting away with reposting content time and time again.

The Right Platforms

Of course, not all of the work which will make someone famous is done on their end. Thanks to the Internet, there are now several routes which can be taken when someone is reaching for stardom. To reach out to the right people, a platform which they are likely to be using needs to be chosen, or it will be hard to capture the right engagement. Below, you can find some examples of these tools, along with their best use cases.

• Soundcloud: For those fresh on the scene, there are very few services which can match the power of Soundcloud. There are loads of companies out there offering Soundcloud promotion services. Not only does this give musicians the power to avoid working through this stage of the job, but it also provides a free platform which is filled with people on the hunt of something new to listen to.
• iTunes: Getting music onto iTunes is notoriously challenging. Unlike other platforms out there, Apple doesn’t like to host files for people, and this means that you have to have an FTP server to do it for you. Once on the service, though, you will have access to thousands of dedicated users, a huge portion of which like to listen to varied music from loads of different artists.
• Tidal: Started by Kanye West and a handful of friends a few years ago, Tidal originally promised to be a great platform for new artists to get the word out. While it isn’t as easy as some hoped, getting onto this service can make a musicians dreams come true, especially considering how picky the managers are. It will be well worth the effort once you’re signed up, though.

Building A Personality

As the last area to consider, it’s time to think about personality. There are loads of artists out there which create unexceptional music, but are still able to capture the hearts and minds of the people listening to them. Through social media, public appearances, and even the work being produced, this aspect is one of the most important when it comes to a modern musician. Of course, though, it can’t be anything too normal. Instead, it is a struggle to achieve this goal, as extremes will almost always have to be crossed into to make it work.

Hopefully, this post will make it much easier to figure out how most people find their fame. In a lot of cases, marketing is the biggest part of this, with those who are able to build something eye catching finding the most success. This can even be true for artists who have found popularity in the past.

It’s no secret that learning a musical instrument, any musical instrument keeps you young. It can change your brain’s structure and enable you to become a better learner, lending you the mental acuity and capacity for learning that you may not have had since your college years (however long ago they may have been). Music is good for the soul as well. It can be a cathartic experience that helps you to come to grips with your emotions in healthy ways. It can be your refuge after a hard day’s work or it can transport you back to a particular time and place with breathtaking expediency. Whether you consume your music through a smartphone as you slog through your daily commute or whether you’re the kind of vinyl enthusiast for whom listening to music is an activity which must be done in solitude and without distraction, few would argue that it doesn’t enrich their day to day lives.

Image Credit

But there’s something about learning the guitar that’s particularly appealing to music enthusiasts of any age. Few instruments can match the guitar’s mystique ubiquity and undeniable cool factor. So long as you keep it well maintained, change your strings regularly and practice every day, your guitar can be a good and loyal friend. It can be your solace after a long day and a talking point at parties. But it also has a few less obvious health and cognitive benefits which we will now examine…

It teaches you discipline

As Aristotle once said, “Through discipline comes freedom”. When we exert more discipline over our lives we’re able to manage our time better, enjoy a better quality of life and be more like the people we want to be. The trouble is that our current society is not conducive to discipline. The digital age has made us pampered babies, accustomed to getting whatever we want with a few dabs on a touch screen. The discipline, patience and diligence required to learn this instrument will help you to master the discipline needed to get back in the driver’s seat and take control of your life.

It improves memory

Do you regularly turn up late for social engagements because you’ve lost your keys or get frustrated when you can’t find where you left your wallet? It can be very tedious and if you’re advanced in years it can be a particular source of anxiety. Fortunately, there’s evidence to suggest that learning the guitar can help your brain retain up to 20% more information when you become a devoted student.

It’s therapeutic

Music therapy is nothing new but while you may appreciate the soothing capabilities that listening to music has, it’s even more therapeutic when the mellifluous melodies are the work of your very own hands. Plucking those strings provides an emotional outlet which can be the perfect antidote to a long, stressful or frustrating day.

It will also help to prevent you from choosing less healthy outlets. Instead of reaching for a bottle of wine after a stressful day, you’ll reach for your guitar instead.

Nowadays, we have access to music in more ways than ever before. While traditional ways of listening to music through a turntable, amplifier and speaker set up still exist, many people (the younger generations in particular) tend to be opting for non-tangible means of getting their music fix. But is one better than the other? Will one method of listening give you a better sound or experience? Stick with us as we find out with a direct comparison of two of the most beloved and common ways of listening to your favourite artists and songs: vinyl and digital.

Vinyl

For many of us, old is gold. But what is the appeal of vinyl and why is it still going strong after all of these years? If anything, these twelve-inch discs should be considered an encumbrance, taking up space that could be left clear and empty if we were only to switch to MP3s and online music streaming. The key to vinyl for many of us is the experience of buying it, handling it, and enjoying a tangible possession. We take pride in the collections that build up next to our record players. We believe that the artwork has value when you can actually see it and appreciate it, rather than it taking up a few pixels in the corner of a screen. We delight in finding a rare item in the depths of a charity store or at the bottom of a dusty pile at a car boot sale. We trade, sell, and deal in these waxy circles. For the musicians amongst us, we just feel a little more accomplished when we have a physical object to show for the hard work we’ve poured into our art. We enjoy engaging with companies like Nationwide Disc in order to distribute our work manually. What’s more? We just can’t get enough of that crackle when we put the needle down on the record! It gives each track a raw feel of authenticity.

Digital

Now, vinyl may have a hip sense of nostalgia about it. But the sad truth is that we can’t haul our sound system with us wherever we go. Many of us want to listen to music on the move, whether we want discreet listening on public transport, the opportunity to blare our favourite tunes through our car speakers while we’re driving, or perhaps just want to listen in a separate room to where our vinyl collection is stashed. In short, digital music is portable and convenient. The world can become our oyster without us having to sacrifice our favourite songs on the way. What’s more? Digital tends to be cheaper than vinyl. In fact, streaming through applications such as Spotify and Youtube can be completely free if you’re willing to listen to a few ads in between tracks!

As you can see, both vinyl and digital have their merits. Perhaps the best way to approach the matter of vinyl versus digital is to throw away this binary and embrace both. This way you can get the best of both worlds, listening conveniently and maintaining your collection all at once!

1. What’s it like being a singer/songwriter and healing artist based in New York City? Is that your full time job? If so, what’s that like and how long have you done that? If not, what else do you do to support yourself or did you do before that was your full time job?

I’m very grateful that I am able to do what I love and humbled to have been able to realize the dream of moving from Switzerland to Nyc, attending a Musical Theatre program and working on music. Before my time in the US I was teacher in Switzerland and worked with children. Being an artist is a full time job and requires not only to create but also to be a business person. New York is a city of inspiration and collaboration, because it’s a melting pot of many talented and creative people. At the same time I can get overwhelmed by so many different energies and I need to withdraw to re-connect with myself. For me to be able to create, I need a quiet space and a quiet mind and a daily mediation practice is essential.

2. With your new song, “Legion of Light” you were exploring how to combine pop songwriting with sound healing practices, how do you that and what’s that like?

My love for music has led me to continuously explore and learn as much as possible about the power of sound. I’ve studied Performing Arts and Healing Arts including Sound Healing, Reiki Energy Healing and am now training as a Kundalini Yoga teacher. At a certain point in my journey, I was asked to make an intention regarding my musical offering. I realized that I wanted to help building a bridge between spirituality and pop music. I then searched to understand what makes pop music healing and how to utilize Sound Healing tools to create conscious/restorative pop music ‘Yoga Pop’. ‘Sound Healing uses vibration, frequency, sound, toning, chanting, song and music to create shifts in the body, mind and spirit.’ ‘Frequency + Intent = Healing’.

Within my music and through classic Pop songwriting, Sound Healing techniques and frequencies (vibrations) are being used that assist in healing and special instruments and mixing at various HZ to maximize the different tones that each of the instruments provide – to help tuning in with each of the seven chakras.

Chakras are the centers in our bodies in which energy flows through and each chakra is associated with a certain part of the body and a certain organ which it provides with the energy it needs to function. Because they connect to our well being, psychological, emotional and spiritual, it’s important to maintain balance. All meditation and yoga systems seek to balance out the energy of the chakras.

For Legion Of Light Katherine Hamer, a New York based sound healer, played with ancient Tibetan Singing bowls to open the flow of energy by touching every part of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies. The Legion Of Light song is also written in a specific musical key that corresponds with the crown chakra. Associated with the cerebral cortex, central nervous system and the pituitary gland, the crown chakra is concerned with information, understanding, acceptance and bliss. It is said to be your own place of connection to God, the chakra of Divine purpose and personal destiny.

Legion of Light is about is about connecting with your inner power, to the person that you truly are, your Devine blue print. It’s about remembering that you have the power inside of you to change the world. It’s about self love and self acceptance, owning your voice and healing the world with your true authentic self.

3. How can music or sound have a healing effect on people?

Every atom in the universe and cell in the body is vibrating constantly and this can be directed and enhanced through the power of sound frequencies in the form of words and music. Sound work is creating a frequency and vibration for someone that’s conducive for him or her to heal. When we ‘entrain’ with healing frequencies, our bodies and minds vibrate in harmony. Whether we are musically inclined or not, it is most likely the one thing that truly connects all humans from all cultures, creeds, and corners of the earth.

When sound waves reach our ears , they are converted into electrical signals that travel up the auditory nerve into the auditory cortex*,* the part of the brain that processes sound. Once sound waves reach our brains, they trigger responses in our bodies. This process alters our emotions, releases hormones and chemicals that affect both our bodies and our moods, and triggers certain impulses (for example, singing and dancing).

Sounds and songs also create memories in us, and this can be used to help patients who are traumatized or depressed. This is possible because music activates the entire limbic system, which is involved in processing of emotions and in controlling memory.

There are a number of methods for achieving sound healing therapy, and a number of instruments and tools that can be used to help the patient through it. However, at its foundation it is based on the premise of entrainment. Entrainment is a method of synchronizing our brainwaves, which fluctuate, by producing a stable, solid frequency that our brains adjust to and then match. Healing with sound can improve and help with: Psychological and behavioral disorders including autism, depression, learning disabilities, anxiety disorders, stress, PSTD, pain, mood swings and negative emotions, clarity and balance, relaxation, memory and concentration, sleep, creativity, awareness and strengthen the immune system.

5. What have you learned about yourself as your pursued your passion to be a musician?

I have learned that it is important to always stay true to yourself, to your authentic self and listen to your inner voice. We are each born with a great, unique potential. All of us have a different call or purposive in life and I do believe that is important to honor ourselves. Can we love ourselves enough to move towards what makes us truly happy to live a fulfilled live? Every person has a unique value and perspective on life and that makes them inherently beautiful and amazing. No one else in the universe is like you. You are one of a kind.

While it’s important to reflect on yourself, there will always be different voices trying to influence you, and having a different opinion. If I would have listened to all the voices of doubt around me, I would have never made it here. There will always be so called boundaries and obstacles to overcome, but we can take baby steps to align with our goals and even small steps lead you closer to a goal. I’ve been learning a lot and am still learning about how we are influenced by our subconscious mind, collective consciousness, lineage, ancestors and DNA, but I do believe that there are ways to change and overcome trauma and limitations, so that we can find back to our truest essence. Overall I think it’s import not to judge and practice compassion and kindness, because everyone has their their story and difficulties to deal with.

By Jill Mattson

In snow country, winter brings a season of soft, deep and wonder-filled silence. The snow absorbs sounds, creating silence that feels juicy, thick and almost “holy”.  Think to the Christmas carol, Silent Night.

Yet, many find comfort with constant noise. The TV endlessly talks. Lawn mowers, traffic and more… continually add noise. We are used to constant sound-chatter. Do we escape silence to avoid feeling alone or vulnerable?  Do we hide from our feelings and innermost thoughts? To a screaming mind, silence is unbearable, but silence has gifts for us to explore.

A Hindu Master, Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji, reflects that in silence there are no quarrels. Silence lies beyond the realm of judgment. Silence is peace. True silence occurs when the mind is still. In silence there are no questions. Creativity begins with silence. True friends communicate best in silence.
Spiritual leaders have long revered silence:

• “Silence is the altar of God.”[1]
• “Be still and know that I am God.”[2]
• “When we go into the inner chamber and shut the door to every sound that comes from life without, then the voice of God will speak to our soul.” [3]

How ironic, the deepest silence is full of a world of sounds (that we don’t hear with our ears). Mystics profess that as one journeys towards enlightenment, a series of subtle, internal sounds may be heard in silence. People have professed to hear in silence the:

• Pounding of the surf of the sea
• Humming of bees
• Tinkling of soft bells
• Ringing of soft bells
• Chirping of crickets
• Babbling water of a brook
• Rumbling of thunder
• Roaring of a lion
• Blowing of a conch shell
• Gong of a big drum
• Strings of a harp
• Tone of a flute
• Sound of bag pipes
• Absence of all sound[4]

The Bible also refers to this inner hearing: “And I heard the voice from heaven. Like the sound of many waters, like the sound of loud thunder, the voice I heard was like the sounds of harpers playing on their harps.”[5]

Focused inner listening reveals a subtle chorus of inner sounds. The ability to perceive these subtle inner sounds can be developed. How do you hear the “jewels” of silence? Focus attention on a sound that is nearby. Next, adjust your hearing to listen to a sound that is far away. Continue changing your listening focus, going back and forth. This eventually creates a high pitched sound, similar to a ringing sound in our ears. (Tinnitus is not a common condition. Tinnitus usually results from inner ear damage. The little “sounds of silence” could be confused with tinnitus.  With tinnitus someone hears the same pitch, volume and quality of sound all the time.)

Another way to access “silence” sounds is to plug your ears and then listen carefully to subtle internal sounds. Find whatever means works best to block out extraneous sounds, such as using earplugs or placing a pillow over the ears.

Alternatively, imagine that each sound you hear can be locked in an imaginary bag that completely muffles the sound. One by one put the sound of traffic, the refrigerator, an airplane flying overhead and so on into the sound tight bag. Let all these sounds go and then listen for the sound that comes from within yourself.

Many sit quietly in meditation for quite some time before they perceive these subtle sounds. As they focus on slight sounds, they first hear their nervous or circulatory systems, heartbeat or other internal sounds. Internal sounds may be mechanical sounding, like a ringing in your ears, the white noise on TV or it could sound like nature…such as the ocean, crickets or rain. As you focus on internal sounds they become louder. Close your eyes and move into the sounds with your feelings. Allow sound to come around you, like a cloak. Sound is invasive and let it in!

At first listen you may hear one sound, but with additional concentration notice that the tone is comprised of a multitude of softer and shorter frequencies. Just like a white light can be divided into a rainbow of frequencies, internal sounds divide into softer component pitches.

Over time your internal sounds morph. What begins sounding like a cricket may end up ten minutes later resembling the sound of the ocean. I went through many months that I only heard crickets and then suddenly my internal sounds were similar to the howling of the wind.

I loved playing with these sounds. I often replicated an internal sound, increasing the volume of my inner hearing and this also provided me with a sense of balance. Singing an octave below the pitch grounded me, giving me a feeling of solidity and power. Humming the octave above appeared to increase my intuition and connection to spirit.

Many sages credit the proper use of sound with great wisdom. It offers profound spiritual growth and puts pilgrims on the spiritual fast-track. Below are quotes from a variety of spiritual disciplines, reflecting on the power of sound and our hearing abilities.

“My Soul counseled me to listen for voices that rise neither from the tongue nor the throat, Before that day I heard but dully, But now I have learned to listen to silence, To hear its choirs singing the songs of ages, Chanting the hymns of space, and disclosing the secrets of eternity.” (Kahlil Gibran)

“While information and knowledge, the fruits of pursuing the light, provide relative peace and spiritual progress, they pale in comparison to the higher God attributes of truth, love, wisdom and freedom and power which the awakened Sound Current imbued within the sincere seeker of truth… These attributes are enlivened by bathing in the audible Life Stream.”[6] (Sikh Guru Nanak)

The winter sings to us in silence. These songs enhance our wonder, spiritual wisdom and abilities to listen to the still small voice and the huge world of inner sounds that we all possess within.

Jill Mattson Bio

Jill Mattson is a prolific Artist, Musician and Author. Jill is widely recognized expert and composer in the field of Sound Healing!   She has produced nine CDs with intriguing, magical tracks using ancient & modern techniques, & special healing frequencies to achieve profound benefits.  Jill is a four – time author. (The Lost Waves of Time – Best Book of 2016 and Best Alternative Science book of 2016, Deep Wave Body Healing CD– Best Sound Healing CD of 2016, Contacting Angels & Masters CD – Best CD of 2015 and Deep Wave Beauty CD – Best New Age CD – Silver Award).  She offers an online Sound Healing School. Jill presents new ways of approaching health and everyday issues using the benefits of sound! Free music & School of Sound Healing at www.jillswingsoflight.com

[1] Paramahansa Yogananda

[2] Old Testament, Bible.

[3] Hazrat Inayat Kan.  Music of Life, Omega Publishing: New Lebanon, N.Y., 1983.

[4] Van Dyke, Deborah. Traveling the Sacred Sound Current, Sound Current Music: Bowan Island, B.C. Canada, 2001, pg. 147.

[5] Bible. Revelations 14:2.

[6] Sikh Guru Nanak