Musical Therapy

Research has shown that music has a profound effect on your body and psyche. In fact, there’s a growing field of health care known as music therapy, which uses music to heal. Those who practice music therapy are finding a benefit in using music to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others, and even hospitals are beginning to use music and music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits that music and music therapy can bring. This is not surprising, as music affects the body and mind in many powerful ways. The following are some of effects of music, which help to explain the effectiveness of music therapy:

State of Mind: Music can be used to bring a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay. This can help prevent the stress response from wreaking havoc on the body, and can help keep creativity and optimism levels higher, bringing many other benefits.

Breathing and Heart Rate: With alterations in brainwaves comes changes in other bodily functions. Those governed by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate can also be altered by the changes music can bring. This can mean slower breathing, slower heart rate, and an activation of the relaxation response, among other things. This is why music and music therapy can help counteract or prevent the damaging effects of chronic stress, greatly promoting not only relaxation, but health as well.

Brain Waves: Research has shown that music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper concentration and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative state. Also, research has found that the change in brainwave activity levels that music can bring can also enable the brain to shift speeds more easily on its own as needed, which means that music can bring lasting benefits to your state of mind, even after you’ve stopped listening to it.

Creative Environments

I read somewhere that certain colors trigger certain responses in a0. humans brain. I'm a firm believer that the environment you're in plays a big role in the quality and the over all feel of a persons work. If you've ever been in a bright, vivid setting, you'll notice that you feel different depending on all the colors you see. This is because of the brains trigger and the connection to the color spectrum. If you don't believe me go, and check for yourself but for most peoples brains, the colors has the following effect on the brain and over all emotion.

Red - the first primary color of the spectrum. It emotionally triggers the sense of power, impulsively, sexuality and increases one's appetite. Be careful how you use red. It can also shout anger, forcefulness, impatience, intimidation, conquest, violence and revenge toward your site visitors.

Blue - The second primary color. It is the easiest color for the eyes to focus. It generates feelings of tranquility, love, acceptance, patience, understanding and cooperation. Its negative qualities if used inappropriately are fear, coldness, passivity and depression. Blue is a favorite color choice among all age groups.

Yellow - The third of the three primary colors. It triggers the following emotions: intelligence, joy, and organization. Its opposite effects when used in the wrong manner or with the wrong combination of other colors can create feelings of criticism, laziness, or cynicism. It's also the easiest to remember (that's why notepads and post-it notes are more than likely yellow).





Orange - a secondary color comprised of the primary colors, yellow and red. It emotionally triggers steadfastness, courage, confidence, friendliness, and cheerfulness. Its opposite effects are ignorance, inferiority, sluggishness and superiority. Orange is generally considered a social color but used in the wrong manner and with the wrong color combinations could create the opposite effects listed.

 


Green - a secondary color comprised of yellow and blue. It includes all the qualities of yellow and blue and the emotions it triggers depends on which of the two primary colors is dominate. Green triggers the following positive emotions: hope, growth, good health, freshness, soothing, sharing, and responsiveness. Its negative attributes are envy, greed, constriction, guilt, jealousy and disorder.






Purple - a secondary color comprised of the Primary colors, Red and Blue. It emotionally triggers intuition, imagination, Universal Flow, Meditation, wealth, and creativity. Purple is considered the color of royalty and is used to calm or relax the brain but used in the wrong manner could create opposite.

Music Garage and the Interview.

Keeping up with us, we were at the music garage last week for The Boy Illinois studio session at the Jungle. Now the night started off horrible and I'll recap it for you guys. So me and my fellow FH2E partner were heading to the automatic lofts to get in the automobile to head to the music garage. We get off the train and walk over to where the car was parked, BUT, the car wasn't there. We were looking around for signs the indicate if it was a tow zone or not and there were no signs, so we had to take the first L and take the train from UIC- Halsted to Illinois Medical District and walk back to Ashland. We were about a block away from Ashland and the bus came, I knew since it was around 10PM that buses were running every 30 minutes and so it was either chase the bus or freeze to death. I saw my partner start running so I had no choice but to follow his lead and we both chased the bus for about 2 blocks just for the bus driver to tell us to go to the next bus stop to catch it... which was about 5 blocks away. So now we're running like our lives depended on it and I look down and see my Auxiliary cable from my headphones dangling and turn around and my phone was in the middle of the street, so I had to turn around, run back to my phone and run even faster to catch up with my partner and the bus but we caught it and heres the funny part, when we got on the bus, we were about 2 blocks away from the place we were going to. So in reality we almost ran the entire way from the blue line to the Music Garage but it was all worth it. We met people and networked with a lot of different Artists, Producers, and even met up with Twista's Road Manager and DJ. Though the night started off bad, It was still a fun experience.

My top 5 favorite Productions

5.  Beanie Sigel - Feel it in the air


Beanie Sigel's "Feel it in the air" track is one I still play from 2004. It was produced by the legendary Heavy D who passed away in 2011. The piece catches your ear immediately with the smooth melody, the laid back high hats of the sample from Raphael Ravenscroft: Whole Lotta Something Goin On. Along with Melissa's voice in the background and on the hook its a beautiful work of music.
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4. Nevelle Viracocha- Astral Hour

Nevelle Viracocha's "Astral Hour" is in my opinion the most slept on underground song of 2013. Produced by Silent Mike, it has a fluid, smooth, feel on the intro and when the beat drops the transition is so smooth and brings the track to life when the kick's come in on the verse. It keeps the same feel throughout the verse and after the verse, you get a spacey, beautiful composition. Check it out here.







3.  Missy Elliott - On & On

Missy Elliott's "On & On" is such a cool track and was my favorite song back when I heard it back in 2005. Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes produced this track for her for her "Cookbook" album. The track is crazy because of the wobble and how the bassline flows with it. The punchy kicks bring the whole track to life, and the DJ effect on the hook with Missy's voice is what makes me love it so much.

2. Drake - Over My Dead Body

Drakes "Over My Dead Body" was so cool to me because at the time back in 2011, I had never heard anything that smooth before. The vocal stylings of Chantel Kreviazuk on the hook and the production by 40 noah make this song beautiful. This is the song that made me a Drake fan and it was only the intro. I got a feel for how the album would be from the intro and it didn't disappoint.








1. Kanye West - All Of The Lights

At number 1, who could forget the song that made the world love Kanye Again after the Taylor Swift incident. This track is one of my all time favorite songs, not just productions, but the whole song. With production by Kanye with a full roster of personnel on the composition along with the vocal stylings of an even more impressive roster, it's no wonder Kanye won multiple grammy's for it.

FH2E: Whats been going on.

If you've been keeping up with me, you'd know I recently joined FH2E and along with Shakari Granberry, we've been making moves. Recently along with the blog work, we've been shooting videos and working with a few Chicago artists shooting videos, making beats, graphic designing, photoshoots, interviews, and recapping shows. Currently, we're working with a number of various artists but  The Boy Illinois and shooting his single called "Winter and Construction" from his new "The Yer Tape" mixtape that dropped last month. Today I can show you all photos from the Photo shoots and from the actual shoot on the set of the video. If you ever want to know what I'm up to, add me on snapchat: icekillab, but for now, if you would like to hear the song, you can check it out here. 

Roast Session

Thought I might as well take a break from the Student Led discussion project and check my Facebook and one of my best friends from high school uploaded this picture. He knew I was gonna get him lol I don't know what he was thinking. He think he a rockstar with the nut huggers on. I swear I think I see bro blood pumping thru his legs in those. I pray nobody make him mad, he might turn super saiyan wearing Vegeta's pants like that. I think he did summersaults with Gabby Douglass in the olympics with those on. When he farted I bet you can see the air bubble travel down his leg and blow a hole out his socks. My man's the new Jimi Hendrix. If Jimi Hendrix was a Rapper this would be him. Lol no but in all seriousness this was the guy that inspired me to produce music back in high school. I have the upmost respect for this guy and everything he's doing. Lane Tech Indians forever.

Jaymz V - Either Way (Prod. by Lo B Jones)

Jaymz V is an artist I've really connected with over the past year. We met thru a song I heard of him with my favorite rapper Supa Bwe. I reached out to him to do a collaboration and after the first collaboration was a success, we figured why stop? We're currently working on an EP with my production, his lyrics, and Supa Bwe's engineering. This is the first collaboration we did and I loved how it turned out. The chemistry we have and that we both compliment each other's styles only add to the bond we share as artist and producer.
The track I sent him is actually a track I had made for Atlanta rapper Deante Hitchcock because of his alternative rap style, but there was really no follow thru on his part so I just kept it moving. I sent it to Jaymz and he loved it. He makes alternative hip-hop as well and me being an alternative hip-hop fan, I actually prefer to make those types of tracks. I know we can do big things if we keep up our work but for right now just check out the track we collaborated on called "Either Way". Take a listen.

https://soundcloud.com/tharealjayv/eitherway

Making of a Beat

Today I'm gonna tell you all how I get in my zone to make my music. My go to DAW is FL Studio for making beats because of its wide variety of plug-ins and effects, not to mention its easy to maneuver and to operate. Usually, when I'm making a beat, it has to do with the mood of the day. If its rainy/cloudy, I might take a conscious approach, if its sunny i might take a uptempo, bright, dance approach, if it's night i'll take a dark approach. At the start of the process, I set my tempo, 130-175bpm for the sunny days, 100-130bmp for the nights, and 60-120bpm for the rainy/cloudy days. I always start off with the melody first because I'm really no good at making bass lines from scratch. From there I experiment with sounds until i find the right sound to fit the melody I played. I like to layer my melodies with at least 3-6 different sounds including the feel of the beat. The feel is usually a pad or something that can go in the background that won't really disrupt the vibe. Once thats taken care of i throw in the drum tracks. Kicks, High Hats, Snares, and a low frequency oscillator to side chain to the kick drum to create a 808. When the drums are done, melody is done, it's time to add effects and mix it so nothing peaks. When everything is done the finish project is worth feeling myself.


https://soundcloud.com/lo_b_jones/anyway-preview