Listen
Music for the hour when the day is over and the body is still inside it. Three pieces, about fifteen minutes each, free to listen to here.
Each piece comes two ways. One has a quiet pair of tones under the music, made for headphones. The other is the same music without them.
Unwind
For listening awake, sitting or lying down, with nothing else to do.
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Duduk
15:40Armenia. A reed voice in a vast interior.
What is under the music
On headphones the left ear hears a quiet tone at 779.2 Hz and the right ear one at 789.2 Hz. Neither ear hears the 10 Hz between them. The difference shows up as a slow wavering.
From the third minute the two tones draw closer. By the twelfth they are 8 Hz apart, at 780.2 and 788.2 Hz, and they stay there to the end.
In the version without the beat, both ears hear one tone at 784.2 Hz and nothing wavers.
The difference between the ears, across the piece. -
Morin Khuur and Yatga
15:44Mongolia. A bowed fiddle and a plucked zither on an open plain.
What is under the music
On headphones the left ear hears a quiet tone at 617.5 Hz and the right ear one at 627.5 Hz. Neither ear hears the 10 Hz between them. The difference shows up as a slow wavering.
From the third minute the two tones draw closer. By the twelfth they are 8 Hz apart, at 618.5 and 626.5 Hz, and they stay there to the end.
In the version without the beat, both ears hear one tone at 622.5 Hz and nothing wavers.
The difference between the ears, across the piece. -
Kora and Cello
15:34West Africa. A plucked harp-lute and one low bowed note in a close room.
What is under the music
On headphones the left ear hears a quiet tone at 617.8 Hz and the right ear one at 627.8 Hz. Neither ear hears the 10 Hz between them. The difference shows up as a slow wavering.
From the third minute the two tones draw closer. By the twelfth they are 8 Hz apart, at 618.8 and 626.8 Hz, and they stay there to the end.
In the version without the beat, both ears hear one tone at 622.8 Hz and nothing wavers.
The difference between the ears, across the piece.
Before you listen
- Use headphones for the version with the beat. On speakers the two tones mix in the air and the wavering is lost. The version without the beat is made for speakers.
- Keep the volume low. The tones do not need loudness.
- Listen at rest. Never while driving, and never during anything that needs full attention.
- If a piece agitates more than it settles, stop. Open the eyes, look around the room, feel the floor.
- If one ear hears much less than the other, the beat will not form. The music is the same either way.
- The slow movement on the listening screen can be breathed with or only watched. If following it brings strain or lightheadedness, turn it off and breathe as usual.
- People with epilepsy or a history of seizures are commonly advised to ask a clinician before using binaural beats.
This is music offered for rest. It is not a treatment. For medical, trauma, and crisis guidance, see Reader safety and resources.
About the beat
Each ear is given a slightly different pitch. Hearing registers the difference as a slow wavering that belongs to neither tone. It forms only when each ear hears its own tone, which is why it needs headphones. The name for it is a binaural beat.
Whether that wavering changes how settled a person feels is not established. Studies of binaural beats disagree, and the evidence is weakest when the tones sit under music, as they do here.
So the music comes first. The tones are stated openly, every piece is offered with and without them, and anyone can compare the two. The numbers are a design choice. No study prescribes them.
The listening screen offers three breath rhythms from the Breath page. The full set of practices is there.
Free to listen to here. Link to this page freely. Please do not copy the music to other sites or sell it.
The breath rhythm and visual last chosen are kept in this browser, so the page opens the same way next time. Nothing is sent anywhere. The player keeps its place only while the page is open.