Inactive Tutor answered • 09/03/26
Music, like everything else in the universe is made up entirely of vibrations of different frequencies(speeds). This also applies to thought patterns. To get music to induce a feeling of calm, it has to vibrationally match a human state of calm. Regarding Pitch- Human hearing ranges from 20hz to 200k. Right in the middle of that is the midrange approx 500hz to 3k. This is where most human voices are so you want to avoid those frequencies to allow the attention to drift elsewhere rather than plucking up interest in the listener's ears.
Regarding Tempo -the average human heartbeat in a complete state of relaxation is 40-60bpm. Our hearts will entrain these tempos and immediately relax if the rest ofhe factors are covered.
The momentum of all music is based on a sequence of harmonic tension and resolution. Consonance and dissonance.
For the type of music you are describing, you want to use less dissonant sounds w ih less tension and resolution. Almost completely static works for this. One or two chord strucures broken up in very slow rhyhm using non dissonant resolutions, based on either a pentatonic scale which has no half steps (1/2 steps create tension), or chords which have a relaxing sound such as Major 6th, Major 7th, or layered pentatonic notes (try all the black keys on a piano). Listen to "Music for Airports" by Brian Eno. He was one of the first to intentionally creates overlapping loops for the purpose of relaxation.
