Dear Diary,<\/p>\n
For as long as I can remember (which isn’t much), I’ve found myself drawn to songs with a fair bit of repetition in them.\u00a0 I’ve created over two-hundred pieces spread out across over twenty projects, and they mainly bear a theme of repetition.\u00a0\u00a0 My audio works are mechanical,\u00a0 often harsh, but the joy of making them shines through the abrasiveness.\u00a0 My primary avenue of approach is sampling.\u00a0 I will hear a sound that strikes me a certain way and add it to a library of otherwise unrelated clips for use later.\u00a0\u00a0 When I want to construct a piece,\u00a0 I have a feeling I want to convey and take deep dives through my library, looking for samples that make me feel the same emotion.\u00a0 I find a way to layer and loop these assorted audio bites into an entire course;\u00a0 my music is itself repetition.<\/p>\n
Due to my use of existing sounds, I’ve always struggled with the label of ‘musician.’\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, I create unique sounds too, but I felt an imposter syndrome over my joy of sampling.\u00a0 Ironically,\u00a0 acts that sample heavily, like Daft Punk and The Prodigy, are groups I treasure in my heart with no sense of disdain.\u00a0 I still struggle to take pride in anything I do.\u00a0 I still have much to learn about pride contributing to confidence without going overboard into arrogance.\u00a0 I think I’ve stumbled onto an idea that may bear nutritious fruit later:\u00a0 Mantra Meditation.<\/p>\n
What is Mantra Meditation?\u00a0 It centers around a word, sound, or phrase being repeated.\u00a0 The purpose of the repetition is to actively channel your thoughts and feelings in a specific direction.\u00a0 I developed two mantras without understanding what they are:\u00a0 “Plan Slowly, Execute Quickly” and “Don’t Think, Just Dance.”\u00a0 The former is something I tell myself when I’m in the decision-making process, and the latter is for my music creation.\u00a0\u00a0 They both center around my habit of overthinking and allow me to get off the mental hamster wheel.<\/p>\n
My memory is severely limited;\u00a0 I’ve been learning to live with it.\u00a0 \u00a0I don’t get songs stuck in my head,\u00a0 I get one bar, and it loops.\u00a0 It could be a beat,\u00a0 one line of lyrics,\u00a0 a synth bit, and it used to frustrate me.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 those individual components of the overall composition are what I loved listening to; I would seek them out.\u00a0 My limited ability to envision the larger picture is why I gravitated towards sampling in the first place,\u00a0 something I only understood well after it became my standard practice.\u00a0\u00a0 By channeling my joy, anger, and sense of exploration into my music and the songs on repeat, I was practicing Mantra Meditation.<\/p>\n
I was being present with the music and aligning my actions with my intentions. \u00a0\u00a0Perhaps I would dance vigorously to Defqon 1 sets,\u00a0 sing to Fear Factory’s Demanufacture album,\u00a0 or drum along to DJ Shadow’s Midnight In A Perfect World.\u00a0 In all of those cases, I harmonized my emotions with the music surrounding me.\u00a0 Through Mantra Meditation, I experienced the broadest range of emotions, and I didn’t understand what I was practicing.\u00a0 Developing an understanding of my nature and what works for me has not only removed the imposter syndrome but allowed me to engross myself in emotional music.\u00a0 Yes, I’m being repetitive, but it enables me to live with intention like few other tools.<\/p>\n
The next time you want to roll the windows down on a drive and sing your heart out, do it!\u00a0 The next time you feel joyful listening to something, \u00a0express your joy in your style, whatever that may be.\u00a0 The soundtracks of our lives may sound different from one another, but the underlying emotions run parallel.\u00a0 All of us understand anger, sadness, tranquility, etc.\u00a0 The circumstances of how we learn all these things vary, but our lives are not so different at our core.\u00a0 We all yearn for the same general things, and we can practice the joy of being through living with intention; Mantra Meditation is one more tool in our box we can use to float down the river of life with a smile.\u00a0 Smile when you can; you are worth it.<\/p>\n
P.S. – *Huge* Credit to Underworld, Chrono Trigger, and Metroid for helping me realize I’ve been practicing Mantra Meditation for a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Diary, For as long as I can remember (which isn’t much), I’ve found myself drawn to songs with a fair bit of repetition in them.\u00a0 I’ve created over two-hundred pieces spread out across over twenty projects, and they mainly bear a theme of repetition.\u00a0\u00a0 My audio works are mechanical,\u00a0 often harsh, but the joy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304,337],"tags":[312,327],"class_list":["post-28190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","category-the-mindfulness-journey","tag-312","tag-meditation"],"yoast_head":"\n