Matthew Harding – Melbourne, Australia.
Saxophones (Tenor, Alto, Soprano), EWI, Keyboards, Vocals and other blowing instruments.
Matthew is both the brains and the brawn behind CalmingMusicWeekly.com .
While his good looks are debatable, his excellent personal hygiene has allowed him to remain on his own in his music room / study doing stuff on his saxes, keyboard, EWI and computer – the perfect combination of both music nerd and computer nerd.
Matthew has played all kinds of music in many and various musical groups for a long time. He jammed on his recorder while his groovy Grade 3 teacher played her guitar. He played his solo clarinet and sang at school assemblies in Grade 6 and spent much of his primary school years dabbling on the piano. In mid high school he first got hold of a saxophone and discovered his true calling. Numerous bands – originals, covers, loud, soft, orchestras, choirs, duos, trios, quartets, funk, jazz, rock, blues, etc – all great fun but perhaps just a little bit too musically promiscuous. Still, if it feels good and isn’t hurting anyone then why not ? He even got to play the Harmonium in an old friends rock band for a while. When he grows up, Matthew is going to be a rock star…. any minute now…. until then, he is enjoying playing his saxes (and singing) with his funk/rock/jazz band – Portmanteaux. He has also discovered that he cannot dance while singing at the same time… in fact he cannot dance at all.
While working in a retail shop many years ago, he noticed that people kept buying the relaxation music and calming music CDs the shop had for sale. He thought to himself, “I can do that !”. So he did. He rang a friend of his, keyboardist Rick Plumridge , and said, “Do you want to do a calming music album ?” Rick said, “What, now ?” And then Matthew said, “No, not now. Tomorrow.” And the deal was done. Together they recorded a calming music album of which they are both very proud and went on to be a best seller, “River to the Sea“.
A few field recording trips into the Australian bush and coast to capture the sounds of birds, animals, rivers, waves, wind, rain and thunder resulted in schenanigans that rivalled some of the bands and tours they had both been in over the years. And far too much giggling for two silly grown men with microphones and recording gear.
Then they recorded another calming music album, “Sea to Sky” – partly because they could, but mostly because they enjoyed the relaxed feeling of both recording their songs and listening back to their efforts. It would appear that many people around the world also have enjoyed Matthew and Ricks music for the same reasons.
While waiting for his daughter to finish her Australian Girls Choir rehearsal one day, Matthew got chatting to another parent, Rosemary Bennett, who was also waiting for her daughter. Rosemary ran Guided Meditation sessions and classes and was struggling to find some suitable music to use. So, Matthew, Rick and Rosemary went back into Ricks recording studio and “Simply Relaxation” was created – another best seller.
When he is not making music, he like to help people with making their own their DIY website and their website creation. He has also discover the benefits of getting external help in his various businesses and has written several books on how to start outsourcing.
Matthew has since written, recorded and featured on many more calming music songs. And now quite a number of these songs are available in the members area as part of this Calming Music Weekly project.
