The Binaural Banjo

The final episode is here. I thank everyone who has followed this podcast for so long - seven years now, I think - and hope you've enjoyed listening to the music as much as I've enjoyed making it. Obviously, things have slowed down a lot over the past year or so, but as I've said at some points I've been making a lot of music. For the most part it's freely available Creative Commons stuff, very similar in vibe and style to the Binaural Banjo, but for various reasons the material just isn't finding its way here. So I'm taking the hint from myself and closing down. The blog/podcast will stay online indefinitely, and the tunes will likewise be hosted over at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/podcast_dronelab. Please do continue to download and enjoy, and I would be grateful for anyone to spread the word about my doings as Petal or my other projects. All of these will be posted to http://petalmusic.blogspot.com/. As for this last episode, as far as binaural beats go the previous episode was really the last. There is no binaural beat in this one, which is here because it started out as a Binaural Banjo tune and like so many others evolved into something else. I'm also happy to say it is the result of a collaboration between myself and Thomas Lindsey, aka TonePoet, who is an amazing musician in his own right and who releases lots of great stuff over at Bandcamp under the Rusted Sun netlabel: https://rustedsun.bandcamp.com/. If you like this tune, please be sure to head over and download - for free or "name your price" - the complete EP, Communicate, by the Rusted Sun Collective. Thank you all again. For the Fathers We Never Found

Breaking with the usual guitar and banjo duet approach, this tune includes a couple low synth parts. I've also been experimenting a lot lately with poly-rhythms and overlapping time signatures, looking for surprises and interesting intersections of beats and phrases, and although some of that stuff has come out too abstract for what I like to do with this podcast there is a touch of that here towards the end. The binaural beat is 18Hz, so once again good for some active listening and this tune can also stand a little higher volume than I recommend for the more mellow, sleepy tunes. I see the last episode, Boatman, was something like four plus months ago. Sorry about that - I've had a bunch of tunes that I started writing for the podcast but which evolved into other projects, so the delay was not from a lack of activity but from too much activity going off in other directions. But it has all gone towards a full length acoustic-ambient release I hope to have out soon, and I think everyone who likes the Binaural Banjo will like that, too. Thanks as always for your patience and for listening! As usual, with embedded artwork: A Thousand Ages

First off, I should say that this tune is pretty dark and noisy. On the one hand, I think it makes some interesting changes from the kind of music I generally post. On the other, I tend to think of the Binaural Banjo as an outlet for my more melodic and light offerings and this tune just doesn't go there. Not for lack of trying - part of the delay in getting a tune up here is the fact that everything I produce lately turns out dark, regardless of how it starts out. But for all that I like the tune, and it may be relaxing enough in its own way. It comes with a 2Hz binaural beat, which is way down in the mix (the droning you hear is ebowed banjo, not the binaural beat track). At low volume and with headphones it makes an interesting trip. Next time will be something lighter, I promise. The Boatman (with embedded artwork!)

I mentioned in my last post about the end of the lossless site that I was working on a lot of new ideas, and of course true to form here I am posting an episode that doesn't really incorporate any of them. But I got stuck on this new wave psychedelic guitar riff a couple weeks ago and decided to see how well I could mix it into a Binaural Banjo tune. There are some new things in here, actually. I've been wanting to work a rhythm section into more of what I do, which may not be the best choice for this podcast overall but for this tune I think it sounds okay. Because it's a bit more of a pop song and could stand to be listened to at regular volume I included a 30Hz binaural beat that should work with more active listening. The only thing to watch out for is the high droney parts, which have a kind of delay that I couldn't get rid of. It doesn't take away too much, but maybe should have reduced the gain a bit. Of course you're all welcome to comment. Includes artwork! Sunstroke

Don't think I've done this before, but I went with a 1Hz binaural beat on this one after I saw somewhere that it is supposed to cause euphoria and endorphin release. Sounds good to me! After Tuesday I'm sure most of us here in the States will be ready for some endorphins. I'm ready now. This is also a long one - about 15 minutes. It may be too long to sustain such a simple arrangement and melody, but not for a lack of trying. I did the guitar and banjo parts and experimented with several counter melodies, harmonies, bridges, etc. but found that everything else just got in the way.So I ended up making the intro and outro longer, which was probably the best thing anyway. Includes embedded artwork, lossless version to be posted soon. Enjoy! Brothers

After some delay, a new tune. I hadn't done a drone piece in a while, so that's what I went for here. Experimentally, I also added quite a bit of high end harmonics. I tend to stay away from the upper ranges but this time it seemed like it might work. I hope it did. Binaural beat of 10Hz this time, good for alert listening. Includes artwork! The lossless version will be posted later today at Binaural Banjo Lossless. Ultima

Back in February we experienced another move and the start of a new job. One of many perks in this arrangement is I now have a dedicated home studio space - the day we moved in I sat down and just recorded a chord thing on the guitar, which ultimately evolved into the tune featured today. Hopefully it sounds okay. This time around there's a lot of carpet to deal with, and the studio is also fairly small, so everything sounded different to me. In any case, there's an 8Hz beat on this one. I know I tend to favor the 4-8Hz range, but that's just my favorite. Hopefully others like it, too. The mp3 also has "cover art" already attached, which is no big deal but should look nice on little devices. I haven't uploaded the lossless version yet, but check http://www.petalmusic.org/beats/ in a couple days and it will be there. Cat's Eyes

Ahead of the usual schedule this time, with a 16Hz binaural beat. As I was getting this one together, it put me in the mood for more aware, active listening, so I went with a beta wave frequency. I should say that as a tune, this one is still pretty meditative and relaxing. Not quite as simplistic musically as I usually try to keep things, but hopefully it will be interesting without being obtrusively so. Lots of major pentatonic stuff going on, for the theory geeks out there. Also, some folks will have noticed that I've been embedding images in the mp3 files for the past few episodes. So far the picture has always been the old Binaural Banjo banner image, but starting with this tune I'm going to try and use original art each time. I'm not much of a visual artist, so I doubt anyone will be blown away, but I think it makes for a nice additional touch. As usual, the lossless version will soon be available at http://www.petalmusic.org/beats/. Also, since I updated the template here there's a lot of social media capabilities. Please use the buttons provided to "Like" on Facebook, or to Digg or Tweet or otherwise spread the word about the Binaural Banjo. The subscriber count has been holding for a while now and I'd like to see if we can grow the audience. Enjoy! The Ashen Light

A little later than usual with this one. Sorry - everything was on schedule for a November release when a series of technical issues forced me to abandon multiple recording sessions and dump an entire work in progress. I'm still hoping to salvage that one, as the tune was really nice, but I'm equally pleased with the current song, Enchantment. This was a mostly improvised piece, with the chord progression and the melody just kind of falling together instantly. Very simple and spacious. The binaural beat is 6Hz, which is right in the middle of the theta range. As usual around Christmas, I wanted to put out something relaxing and meditative. I think this fits the bill very nicely. Check out the lossless version at http://www.petalmusic.org/beats/ Enchantment

Still keeping to a roughly two month release schedule, here's a new tune with a 10HZ alpha beat. Nice for active listening or relaxation without getting too mellow. The lossless version will be up shortly. Never fear to check it out over at: http://www.petalmusic.org/beats/ Also, I've been enjoying some side activity recently that I'd now like to grow, if possible. Thanks to some enthusiastic listeners I've been pleased to fill a few requests for customized Binaural Banjo releases. These include CD ready collections of tunes written and recorded solely for the buyer, along with original artwork. If anyone out there is interested in such a thing, please email for details. In the meantime, thanks again to everyone for listening and for the positive feedback! Ivory