Song Conversion Sunday: I Like the iTunes Version, So...

The last time I selected a song, I found it on my iTunes account, and that worked really well for me, so I think I'll do that again. I set my music to shuffle and press play. Here goes - let's see what song comes up...
Zen Buddha Indian Meditation Music for Awakening, by the Sea Tranquility Academy, on the 111 Ambient Nature Sounds album.
I really like it when fate takes me on paths of exploration and learning. I know very little about Buddhism or meditation, so I will be trying to find out as much information as possible about this particular piece of music as well as why it is titled what it is titled. I don't know that I will be able to do this music any justice whatsoever, but I will make an effort to learn what I can about this piece and the people who present it to the world.

A Google search for "Sea Tranquility Academy" reveals that this type of music seems to be what this group does. There is little information about who is behind the music under the label, but you can find music from the academy on Spotify, SoundCloud, and iTunes without any sort of problem. The music is what I would classify either "New Age" or "Neo-Classical" due to a need to label things into genres.

To best represent this music in a way that reflects that I am not part of the original culture (I wonder if the performers/composers are part of the named cultures as well), I will spend some time looking into the words that are used to name this piece - Zen, Buddha, Indian, Meditation, and Awakening. Those are all concepts or terms that I know, but I would like to know a bit more about them and why they are put together in such a manner. I'd also like to know if this is part of a series or just something on its own. 

From one cursory listen to this music, I find it monotonous and uninteresting. This is my response and reaction to much of the music that is in this genre, so that's not really a surprise. I have to ask people to turn off this type of music when I am at spas or expected to relax as it does not help me. I tend to get a bit frustrated with the lack of novelty and the repetitive nature, and I become more tense than relaxed. I'd rather not have any music than this music - for me. I have also seen lots of benefit for those who are not as aware of music. I can use this as a tool, even though I cannot use it for my own ends. 

I have some work to do to find out more about this particular piece of music and more about this genre as a whole. I also want to know more about the culture that inspired this music (I suspect that it was my own culture and not rooted in another, but we will see - cultural appropriation??). I want to know if there are specific music theory structures that are expected for zen or Buddhist or Indian meditation music, and then I want to know if this piece reflects those expectations. This should lead me into several weeks of research and experience. Any resources that folks have would be very handy! Put them in the comments, please!!

Time to listen again and get going into this exploration. 

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