Bandcamp is the only place to purchase Lucid Sound Project music. It is the only artist-first platform, paying 80% directly to artists every day.
I have music from my band LuLu’s Ascent on all the other platforms, and we get paid fractions of a penny per download or stream.
Anyway, there is a mix of sound meditations and new versions of my originals. The entire collection I have up so far is 15% off – click here to check it out!
More to come – love to all
“You experience the integrity of all world languages through the vibration of Sanskrit language
through chanting.”
~ Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati
I absolutely love Sanskrit mantras because they contain so much, each syllable is a world. This mantra is so simple, yet so powerful. It is one of the few that has very few restrictions or rituals. It can be said at any time, aloud or silently.
While it is sometimes difficult to get a direct translation, basically, I bow to the supreme reality (or inner godself). This mantra embodies powerful healing for physical and mental ailments, and for the
healing of the planet. Peace to the heart, joy to the soul, sound therapy to the body, nectar to the Atman or soul.
This track is a brand new version somewhat like I do in sound meditations live with looping.
*best through headphones or good speakers!*
In the graphic I tried to show a few of the major correlations – to the chakras, the senses, and the elements. I changed the
orientation of the words/syllables to better match up with the chakras they correspond to.
As you chant this mantra envision each syllable at the chakra it relates to.
Another visual study, Connections to the Cosmos, can be found here.
I have been working on this poster for a few years. It started as a small sketch that I reworked many times over. It ended up a full blown 14″ x17″ drawing that I have no way to scan at the moment. So I reworked it yet again into digital form. Pretty different, oh well.
I wanted to see all the ways that music connected to the various aspects of creation. There is still some debate as to how specific notes align with chakras etc. but I’m using what I have found at this point in time and am in no way claiming absolute authority here. For me it’s kind of a fun way to embed meaning and aspects into writing something. I hope you enjoy and find something in it for yourself. To be continued.
4pm | Price: By Donation
Movement & Learning Center
(above the French Broad Food Co-op)
90 Biltmore Ave. | MAP
The Sun, the nourishing orb that sustains all earthly life. The inner Sun, our Divine nature, our inner light, our true source. What better time to appreciate and consciously align with these tremendous gifts of life through a sound meditation.
*to be most comfortable, feel free to bring a yoga mat, pillows, blankets*
As I talk about facilitating sound meditations, I am often asked – “what is it?” – and it’s an excellent question.
Every practitioner has their own take on it, their own training, lineage, philosophy, or viewpoint. And I do not believe there is any right or wrong about it, as I believe all are well intended, so I will only speak from my perspective.
To me, sound is as ancient as it gets, no? All creation starts with frequency, vibration, sound, and it is what holds ‘form’ in place at any given time.
“Get over it, and accept the inarguable conclusion. The universe is immaterial-mental and spiritual.”
– Richard Conn Henry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University (quote taken from “The Mental Universe” ; Nature 436:29,2005)“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”
– Gautama Buddha
I do not have a science background. I haven’t studied in the Himalayas. I’m not really all that smart, although I do like to read and research. I have been studying the healing properties of sound and music for over ten years, mostly to confirm what I intuitively know. I seem to feel like my internal knowing is not enough. I am kinda done with that idea.
The first time I experienced a sound meditation I knew in my bones it was the missing link. And I knew I knew exactly what to do and how to do it. Oddly, it’s really where I started with music. As a kid I used to sit at my dad’s piano and hammer out repetitive drones that entranced me. My dad thought I was a talent-less dolt. I didn’t care; caring came later.
Growing up, I was surrounded by jazz and big band music. That’s what my mom and dad did. I fell asleep to them rehearsing in the basement. Then I got into teeny-bopper bubblegum music (I’m still a sucker for a pop song with a good hook!), then the caring started. While all my friends were into the usual rock music, I went along, went to concerts, and enjoyed some of it. At home, I was listening to stuff none of my friends were. I got into Charles Mingus, Stanley Clarke, Stevie Wonder. Then some punk & new wave, The Pretenders, Blondie, The Eurythmics, then Laurie Anderson, Natalie Cole, Prince, Steve Reich, Keith Jarrett, Peggy Lee, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, the list goes on and on.
Before I ‘went public’ as a musician, I was experimenting with delays and loops on a little Tascam 4-track recorder (which I still have, along with the cassettes, omg) in my tiny studio apartment, and I was in heaven. The cosmic sounds kept me at peace for hours into the night. There was nothing better.
Anyway, I played in bands, singer/songwriter, traveled, blah blah, and never totally felt at home. I hadn’t seen another road. I always wanted to take the listener on a journey. It was never so much about me.
Cut to sound meditations: it finally all made sense. My musical life and my spiritual life aligned. Years of yoga practice, Vedantic studies, and reiki joined together with my passion for sound and music. *PHEW* Halleloo.
My approach to sound meditations is to take a participant on a sonic journey. The participant’s listening, openness, and willingness to surrender to the ride are as much a part of the process as my playing. I create a hybrid of acoustic and electronic sounds, incorporating loops and vocals. As I always say, first, you will hear the sounds, then you begin to listen, then you BECOME the sound. That is when the experience becomes profound, diving through the surface layers of mental chatter, through self-consciousness, and onward into that still place inside where no words are needed. That place from whence we came. Complete. Intelligent. Whole.
I am still honing it, learning, and experimenting. Kind of like back in the day, in my tiny studio apartment, and there’s nothing better.
Sound is an excellent way to facilitate any of these things. While not adding more words to your experience, you can focus your intentions and let the frequencies assist and heal you.
When I do in-person sound healings I always ask if there is something specific you would like to work on. Once I take that in, I am informed intuitively as to how I conduct the sound healing session.
Listen to a sample of a session
I can do the same thing remotely or to make a specialized recording for you. Just let me know what you are working on, I will do a meditation to tune into you and create your recording. The focus will be on chakras and frequencies that support your particular request. I generally use Tibetan singing bowls, frame drum, rain stick, shakers, bells, guitar, and voice. I will then send you the MP3 which you can listen to, on any of your devices, at any time to support your inner work. The recording will be approximately 30-45 minutes.
It’s funny, I never set out to be a performer.
I grew up in a musical family but I was a pretty shy kid. I was more comfortable with my animals than people. I was happiest creating, not so much presenting.
Fast forward to my first apartment and a guy who liked me, who happened also to be a drummer. Somehow it is always the drummers who get me. Anyway, it was a hot summer day and my door was open to let in some air. I was lost in playing my guitar and singing. I never knew how long he had been standing at the door before he finally let me know he was there. I was mortified!! No one had ever heard me play or sing my stuff, and I was good with that.
Somehow this guy gave me enough nurturing and encouragement to step outside the safety of my apartment and give a band a go. We worked hard, held auditions, and eventually we moved in together, mostly so we could have an attic to rehearse. We played some shows to pretty good responses and a whole new world was born. I went from going to shows, to playing shows, and found the stage a double edged sword that I adored and feared.
One thing led to another and I kept finding myself in bands, getting nudges from audience goers to go solo. I hadn’t really thought of that, I was protected in a band. I never truly saw myself as a front person, even though it was a fantasy, I thought I was too fat, I was sure I was not pretty enough, and definitely not showy enough. Yet every time I would step away from performing, something would take me back, somebody would come around with an opportunity, a possibility, and make me feel as though I couldn’t, shouldn’t, walk away from it. I have had some amazing highs and lows winding my way back and forth across this country.
Now, I find myself back to square one, shy and uncertain, riddled with stage fright like never before. I have to sing and play, there is no question about that, but for now, it’s back to creating more, performing less, as that double edged sword seems to have a single edge now.
*originally written March 7, 2015. Again, too afraid to publish it. Deciding today, not to live in fear anymore. Tic toc, tic toc.
What is failure? When I look in the dictionary, my picture isn’t there, yet I have been wrestling with the whole idea lately.
Since June I have been in 3 competitions, and none of them came close to what I had hoped. I played at the Towne Crier Invitational Open Mic Finals Round. There were first, second and third place prizes. I did not place. After the show several folks paid me very nice compliments, ‘you were my favorite’, ‘you should have won’ etc.
In July, after the encouragement of a few friends, I decided to try out for The Voice in NYC. At the end of the audition, our whole group was sent home, no callbacks. Again, the compliments, ‘you were amazing’, blah, blah, blah.
Then in August I was invited to the Big Stage Competition at Infinity Hall in Norfolk, CT. First, second and third prizes all went to other competitors. And the compliments came again, ‘you should have won’, etc. etc.
So, am I doing something wrong? Is it enough to have just gotten that far? What can I learn? Is it a sign I am not good enough? I went back and analyzed each performance and found things I could have done differently. Would it have made a difference in the outcome? Who knows? But it has given me some good insight to how I have been operating.
At the Towne Crier, I said very little on stage. I gave the songs everything and that was it. I saw some pictures after and in every one, my eyes were closed. Not very much for an audience to connect to I suppose.
For The Voice audition I think my song choice was too obscure. I did Overlap by Ani DiFranco. I had tossed around doing Beautiful by Christina Aguilera, but thought it seemed too obvious since she’s been a judge on the show. In the end I think it might have been the better choice, but it may not have made a bit of difference.
Lastly, at Infinity Hall, I tried harder to do a bit more stage patter, and make more eye contact. This was an audience that truly did not need that, so I could have just stayed more in the song.
In all 3 situations I over-thought everything. I wasn’t true to myself, I was trying too hard to decipher what I thought ‘they’ wanted. Rather than just be me. So it has left me with regret. Not that I didn’t win, but that I was not completely in my thing and able to walk away proud regardless of the outcome.
*this was originally written September 10, 2013 but I was too afraid to publish it. Shocking.
Still learning how to be me. In the comfort of my home, it’s pretty easy. But when I head toward the stage it becomes a daunting task, even after all these years. To be my truest self in front of a bunch of strangers is the most unsettling thing. I keep thinking it should get easier.
I stand up there with words and music that come from my soul, and put it before people I do not know, for their approval. What a bizarre activity when you really think about it. My deepest motivation has been to give something, to share something real, in the hopes that the audience and I might be transformed together. Lofty eh?
A fellow musician friend of mine shared with me why he stuck to doing cover songs. He said, ‘If I do covers and they don’t like it, who cares? But if I do my originals and they don’t like it, then they are rejecting me.’ Well put. That is how it feels.
For me it’s always been a crap shoot. Some nights I get lucky, I win because I didn’t get the better of myself, and other nights well, it’s a whole other story. I mess up my playing, I forget the words, I completely f*ck it all up. Why? Because I’m my own worst enemy. I am a believer in the power of our own thoughts and words to create our reality, apparently I still need to hone this skill!! Tuesday night, I created a heckler at Club Helsinki. No other performer heard from this guy but me. I opened my mouth to speak a bit before I played and from the shadows I hear, “just sing”. Yea. OK.
And I let it ruin my whole experience. I let it take what little confidence I had going in. I let it follow me home and take me down a dark road. Until I finally stopped it cold by realizing that this is what I let happen over and over and over again. Now that I’ve taken responsibility, I look forward to creating a new scenario for myself going forward.
Towne Crier Invitational Finals followup: Well, it was close but no cigar. It was a good crowd, receptive and attentive and I felt that I gave a good performance but I certainly did not go in like a competitor. That might have helped since it was a competition. I’ve never taken the attitude, “I’m the best”, because somewhere along the way I must have decided that would be ‘bad’, it wasn’t ‘nice’. I’m realizing now, that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with, “I’m the best me!”. Another lesson learned. It’s been a good week for that.
I’ve never fit in, and generally I’m ok with that, but when I make it matter, when I try to fit into someone else’s idea of who I should be, I crumble. I’m kind of like that Warner Brothers frog….
*originally written June 7, 2012.
It has been a busy summer, full of ups and downs, and that is just life isn’t it? And so we keep movin’ on.
I’m heading back into my turtle shell for a bit while I work on an entirely new project. If it comes to fruition as I envision it in my mind’s eye, it will really be something to see!!
Stay in touch and if you’re not on the mailing list, please subscribe so you can join me on the journey!
Here’s a link to a video of Over Coffee from the Hudson Valley Harvest Festival shot by Front Row Dave.
~cheers for now~
~much love~LuAnn
