In Review--Guitar Sounding OM

-

Stevin McNamara
Om Guitar
Sounds True

 Long-time veteran of the music business, guitarist and producer Stevin McNamara provides us with east-west fusion meditative music on his latest disc, "Om Guitar". He invited an array of guest musicians who brought sitar, tamboura and percussion to McNamara's Indian-sounding guitar. The music provides a wonderful background for meditation, contemplation or for doing work that involves little focus. It is ideal for reading, knitting, and sewing type activities, but would not work well for driving a car.

 "May Fortune Smile" might interests a few listeners. According to the liner notes, this track "derived from an early evening raga, "Yaman Kalyan," often used as an invocation for good fortune and abundance." And who does not want good fortune and abundance?

 All four long-playing tracks derive from ragas, which represent a certain part of the day. And all of the ragas have been translated into contemporary sacred or meditative music and in this case with guitar as the main instrument.

 Also according to the liner notes, "May Fortune Smile is the result of an experiment to compose a complete-sounding piece using only one instrument. Every sound you hear was produced on the nylon string guitar and uses of fingers, brushes, and a violin bow; even the 'bass drum' is the heel of the hand on the back of the guitar."

 "Om Guitar" in my opinion, is too meditative for activities that take a lot of energy. The music tends to draw me into a contemplative state, even a sleepy one. Could be good bedtime music or for early morning meditation. You might even play the evening ragas in the evening and use the morning ragas for morning meditation.

 May fortune smile upon you.

 soundstrue.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Peyote Songs & The Native American Church

-
Image
Father Peyote: Songs of the Native American Church Introduction to the Peyote Church Ceremony This is an archival article written in 2003.  It's not updated.  For more recent recordings, go to Canyon Records website, http://www.canyonrecords.com When some people speak of Native American ceremonies, the peyote ceremony or the ingestion of the hallucinogen peyote (contains mescaline) usually surfaces. However, there is too much false information being passed around in the non-native community surrounding peyote meetings. The first thing people need to know about the Native American connection to peyote is that the plant is sacred medicine ingested as a sacrament during healing ceremonies of the Native American Church. The second thing, people need to know is that the Native American Church is not a set structure like the Christian Church. The peyote meeting could take place in a Navajo hogan or a teepee. And finally, since the peyote meeting does in part derive from Nat
Read more

21st Century Musical Healer Series--Heather Hannan

-
Image
 Healing with Sound and Reiki Based in Toronto, Canada, Heather Hannan has proven with her own life healing experiences the enormous power of sound frequencies. She acts as a bridge between the mundane world (real estate) to other spiritual dimensions (past life regressions, quantum physics, Reiki, sound frequencies,  and other cutting edge work). I met Heather through my Linked In group Musical Healers and I'm delighted to include her work and insights on this blog. As you know, raising music and sound consciousness takes a world-size village of folks, just like Heather dedicating their lives to working with the healing power of sound.  Whole Music: When did you discover and begin exploring sound healing? Heather Hannan: Ten years ago I was at a crossroads in my life and looking for a group of like-minded people with whom to explore my gifts and talents through meditation. Little did I know that via the meditation group I joined I would be invited to
Read more

Talking about Timbre

-
Image
Wikipedia As I mention in my book Whole Music , when I was a child I fell in love with timbre and the voices of the individual instruments we listened to in music class.  Each instrument conjured a specific emotions or feeling in me.  The French horn caused me to feel majestic and the cello invoked melancholy.  My moods would shift with each instrument that I heard and my moods would shift quickly. Today, I listen to more than timbre, but I have an understanding of how tone, frequencies of the tone and timbre (the color of the tone) affect me on all levels.  And I wonder what listening to an entire symphony does with its many voices, themes, keys, musical passages etc... In the concept of "whole music" I prefer not to separate musical components, but in the case of this post, I will present solo instruments for your listening and feeling pleasure. If you keep a music journal (and I hope that you do by now), write down the emotions that come up with each instrument.  R
Read more