How to Choose Music for Meditation
There is a reasonable argument that meditation music is a contradiction. Many traditions would say the practice is precisely about being with whatever is already there. If that is your view, silence may be the honest answer and this article is unnecessary.
For everyone else, particularly when first beginning, music can make sitting down to practise feel a little more inviting. That is worth something.
The question is which music, and the answer is less obvious than the market sometimes suggests.
The main failure: music that is too good
Some recordings made for meditation are simply too interesting.
They develop. A new instrument appears four minutes in. There is a beautiful chord change. Something swells. Something resolves.
Every one of those choices has the potential to ask for your attention, when you may be trying to place your attention elsewhere.
What often works better is music that's closer to weather than composition. Present, undemanding and going nowhere in particular.
If you keep finding yourself waiting for your favourite passage, the music may have become part of the foreground rather than the setting for your practice.
That isn't necessarily wrong. It just may not be what you wanted from it.
What to look for
** Little or no pulse. Rhythm naturally attracts attention. Drones, sustained strings and slowly moving pads can leave more space around the practice.
** Very little change. Music that feels much the same at twelve minutes as it did at two can work particularly well. This is one reason some people enjoy frequency recordings and sustained tones during meditation. If that approach interests you, our guide to Solfeggio frequencies is a useful place to begin.
** Few or no words. Language is difficult to ignore. Wordless vocal textures can sit comfortably in the background, while recognisable lyrics are more likely to pull your attention towards them. Guided meditation is, of course, a different matter.
** Enough length. A track ending nine minutes into a fifteen-minute meditation can be surprisingly disruptive. Choose something longer than you need or a recording designed to continue without an obvious ending.
** Consistent volume. Sudden changes can bring the music straight back into the foreground. Ideally, you should be able to set the volume once and leave it alone.
Matching the music to the practice
Different kinds of meditation can suit different kinds of sound.
** Breath or body-scan practice: Try something particularly sparse and uneventful. Sustained tones, drones and very slowly changing textures can work well when you want your attention elsewhere.
** Open awareness: A little more texture may feel comfortable because sounds themselves can simply become part of what you notice.
** Loving-kindness or affirmation practice: Warmer, harmonically fuller recordings may complement the character of the practice. Some listeners also choose frequencies such as 528Hz for this kind of listening because of the modern associations surrounding them.
** Short daytime resets: Something slightly brighter can work well when the intention is to take a break and return to the day rather than prepare for sleep.
** Meditation before sleep: This has a slightly different purpose. If sleep is where you're heading, our guide to choosing music for sleep may be more useful.
None of these are rules. If a piece of music helps you settle and doesn't keep asking for your attention, it may be exactly the right choice for you.
Practical matters
Try playing the music more quietly than you would if you were listening to it for entertainment.
At a lower volume, music can become part of the environment rather than the main event.
There can also be value in returning to the same recording. Familiarity means there are fewer surprises, and over time you may find yourself paying less attention to the music itself.
Constantly searching for the perfect new meditation track can rather defeat the object.
Think about how the recording ends too. A sudden stop can feel jarring after a longer meditation, as can autoplay immediately launching into something completely unrelated.
If you use a timer or interval bell, choose that with the same care. The final sound is part of the experience too.
And sometimes, nothing
Every so often, you might try sitting without music at all.
Not because silence is somehow a more advanced or correct form of meditation, but because it changes the experience.
You may notice sounds you normally overlook: traffic outside, a clock, birds, the heating, somebody moving in another room. Rather than needing perfect silence, those sounds can simply become part of what is already there.
And you may discover that you prefer music after all.
That's useful to know too.
Our Still Water collection was created with this kind of listening in mind: long, slow recordings that don't continually ask something of you.
They are meant to be allowed into the background while you sit.
For music of this kind, that may be one of the nicest compliments you can give it.
