Atwaterpub

Friday, June 19, 2015

Relaxation Music Theory

By William Schaeffer

June 19, 2015

I was recovering from Bronchitis in early 2014. After a week of lying on my floor in front of a heater, I slowly returned to life. As I was recuperating, I wanted to listen to some relaxing sounds, but all the music I could find on the internet was too busy and overly captivating with lush melodies and subtle rhythms.

I found it distracting and overly stimulating to listen to. Then I had an idea. Why don’t I record something myself? What I really wanted was just a collection of background sounds that would “liven” up the sonic environment without being intrusive. Not really sound effects, but similar; very sparsely arranged musical tones.

With this concept in mind, I created the first relaxation music recording that I posted on youtube.

Some of the features of this musical effort:

1. The effort was to create a soundtrack to put on in the background that was noticeable, but not intrusive or stimulating at all; something slightly musical to listen to in addition to the sounds already present in the background environment.

2. There is a noticeable absence of melody or rhythm. This is the most important part. There is nothing for your mind to “lock onto” and synchronize with. The recognizable repetitive cycle is stimulating and energizing. This effort is to diminish the “musical thought energy” so occasional musical events are sparsely arranged to minimize melodic and rhythmic thought. Let the active analytical mind relax and go to sleep. Let the intuitive mind take over and experience the moment.

3. Decreasing tempo and descending sequence of pitch. We cannot help looking for rhythmic cycles to synchronize our own personal rhythms with. If the events are slowing down then we will follow them and relax. Descending pitch lines give a feeling of moving downward toward the ground or couch and relaxing.

4. Large space of silence between events. These spaces let our mind float and drift and slowly wait for the next event. Much music is designed to surprise and stimulate and energize with constant unexpected sound events. The intent here is the opposite. Just let a simple, pleasant event occur and then float away and eventually something else will happen. Meanwhile, you can just relax.

5. Consonant intervals and minimal use of dissonant harmonies. Consonant intervals are soothing in part because they require much less mental processing to resolve. Dissonant intervals have complicated harmonies that require much thought to interpret and they jar and tense the mind.

6. No fast moving melodies or short flourishes of notes; just occasional sounds that let you relax.

7. Thoughtful clean performance in a thoughtful meditative mindset. I cannot play music this slowly unless I am fully prepared and inspired to spend the time and thought to make it happen. It requires a tremendous amount of concentration and attention, despite the minimal results. If I am in an ordinary mindset, the notes are played too quickly and impatiently and the intended effect is lost. Each time I record, I am convinced that the recording is the last one of this type; for this very reason.

I created these recordings for myself and I actually listen to them quite a bit. Frequently, I prefer to listen to one of these relaxation songs at the computer instead of popular music. If you are a musician, you might try to create a recording like this yourself.

I continue to explore this medium with new ideas. Some are more successful than others, but I feel like I discovered a new way of thinking about and listening to musical events, and that is fun (and relaxing). This type of music could not happen in the previous recorded music economy, because it would be too expensive and too inconvenient to record and distribute such comparatively small musical content. This is another advantage of the internet in our lives today.

Put this music on in the background and go do something else. Write an email, wash the dishes, put a few things away, clean up your desk, read the a book, or just day dream for a moment. Try it and see what you think.

Relax. Enjoy.

William Schaeffer

Friday, June 12, 2015

One gram of fiber for every one hundred calories.

Fifteen years ago, I had a large pre-cancerous polyp removed from my colon during a colonoscopy. There were ulcers at each end of my stomach. I knew that a dietary change was necessary, or I would die. There needed to be more fiber in the diet. After much thought, I developed a rule for eating:

"One gram of fiber for every one hundred calories."

Water, tea, and black coffee were the only drinks allowed, except drinks with natural fiber.

Within three months the ulcers were cured. I am still alive. Over time, almost 45 pounds was lost. My weight has been the same for the past thirteen years.

Since then, I have researched nutrition and developed other rules of eating. I have a better understanding of the mechanisms of health and am still learning to live an optimally healthy lifestyle.

However, if you are just starting to monitor your diet because you want to lose weight, or increase your health, this rule is a good place to start:

"One gram of fiber for every one hundred calories."

William Schaeffer

Monday, June 8, 2015

Atwaterpub

You are Here.

William Schaeffer

Keep Smiling

In the winter of 2000, I was working on the movie Driven in a building on The Lot in Hollywood that no longer exists. The small bungalo we worked in has been replaced with a three story office building.

At that time, six artists were crammed into a single office; sitting at their desks in office chairs with wheels. We worked long hour 12 hour days and frequently snacked at our desk while waiting on renders.

One day, while working on my shot, I found a wrapper, or piece of paper to dispose of. Instead of standing up and walking two steps to the garbage can by Paul's desk, I just scooted over on my chair and deposited the scrap paper in the wastebasket without leaving my seat.

At that exact moment, Paul leaped out of his chair in startled amazement. Landing in his chair again he just gasp and said to me in disbelief, "Woah. Woah. For a moment there, I thought you were a dwarf."

And, he seemed seriously distressed for a while. But we laughed about it, then went back to work.

True Story.

William Schaeffer

Sunday, June 7, 2015

The problem with intelligence

The problem with intelligent people is that they do not realize HOW intelligent they are. This causes no end of confusion and lack of real communication.

If you consider intelligence to be: “depth to which a person can navigate a decision tree and speed with which this happens.” Note: a decision tree is a technique from game theory to graphically organize all possible results of actions taken at different times and states. It is basically a “flow chart” or a “graph of connections.” In other words, intelligence is a measure of ability to process information represented by “volume of data” over “duration of time.”

Smart people can search deeper in the decision tree faster and more accurately than their less intelligent associates.

Now, let’s consider the depth of search in a decision tree to be analogous to depth of vision in a fog. Smarter people can see farther in the fog, while less intelligent people can’t see as far. If you have relatively “limited vision” you can’t possible know what is beyond the scope of your vision. If you have more restricted vision, you cannot understand what someone else with more robust vision can actually see.

If a person with deep vision sees a great anomaly beyond the range of vision of his compatriots, he would be considered “off”, or “wrong”, or “incorrect”’ or “silly.” Only the future will prove the accuracy of his vision; but by that time it no longer matters.

This is one reason why the intelligent will always be misunderstood by the less intelligent. There is no possible way they could be understood. The “well crafted” and “thoughtful” arguments of average people tend to seem simplistic and obviously flawed to the most intelligent. In fact, it is difficult to hold any deeply meaningful conversation at all between the two groups. This is similar to high school seniors hanging out with fifth graders. What similar understanding could they possibly have? The conversation of the fifth graders seems repetitive and trivial. The conversation of the high school seniors seems haughty, obscure, and irrelevant. What commonality exists; other than the most mundane?

An objection: It appears that much intelligent activity in the brain is accomplished with methods other than searching a decision tree. In fact, high speed pattern matching seems to be a component of many intelligent activities like chess playing. Is the foregoing argument still valid if the primary methodology of intelligent activity is not “traversing a decision tree to find the best results?”

William Schaeffer

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Got Love?

Found stenciled on the sidewalk on Hillhurst Ave. in Los Feliz, CA, May 2015

William Schaeffer

Friday, June 5, 2015

The Devil's Blues

How to play the Devil's Blues:

1. Take any twelve bar blues chord progression that you like to play and repeat the twelfth bar for a thirteenth bar. This is the Devil's Blues. Repeat the twelfth bar one more time.

2. It doesn't really matter what you sing. Just play the regular blues for one extra measure. If you like: howling, barking and Grunting like a Pig are appropriate vocalizations; but using real words is always nice touch.

3. Repeat the jam with gusto and have an enthusiastic time, especially on the thirteenth bar. Spread chaos and uncertainty. Savor the moment.

4. Don't try jam this with musicians that are amateurs or easily manipulated. Seasoned Jazz or Blues musicians are the best candidates. Don't play this type of jam too frequently, or too many times in a single evening. Wait till late at night when everyone else is tired and run out of songs. 3:00 AM is when our hearing is most acute if we are still awake.

William Schaeffer