I've been into Ralph Myerz lately: nice, calm, not too distracting. Perfect to get some work done.
How about you?
The new Tim Hecker sets the mood so well that I sometimes forget I'm listening to music.
That's just one track, there's a whole album!!!
Emancipator is my go to study music but I usually don't listen to music when I'm studying.
Okami Piano Arrangments + Noisli, for rain, wind, and ocean sound effects. Productivity shoots up at an alarming rate. Sometimes I listen to the Flower Soundtrack, but it sometimes leads to me tearing up from the music/memories, which is exactly what I don't want while trying to lose myself in work.
Usually I prefer drone and ambient music when I need to study. Recently I use music from the game Fez, specifically these tracks: http://youtu.be/1y5szNZehps http://youtu.be/1y5szNZehps These get me into a studying mood quite well. Before that I used stuff from artists like Brian Eno, John Serrie, Steve Hillage or other related ambient musicians.
If I am really trying to get work done, then I prefer silence. However, when I'm doing work that requires a little less concentration then I regularly listen to Ludovico Einaudi.
Yes, but true silence can be quite disconcerting. But I agree with you and elizabeth, I can't listen to music and concentrate on anything but the music. Sometimes instrumental music can work but anything with lyrics is impossible.
I normally listen to some classic rock (e.g. Bon Jovi, ACDC, Motley Crue) to psych me up, and then play classical trailer music, like Immediate Music or Two Steps From Hell, or even One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII.
I like to use music as background noise when I write. Hearing words just messes with my head, which means I have to rely on instrumentals or foreign songs. Sometimes I like to loop a single pop tune until it becomes meaningless noise. Lately, I've tried something new: a different album for each short story. The "Hanna" original motion picture soundtrack worked wonders for this weird crime story I wrote. After that, I had to piece together a "Fright Night" remake soundtrack, since the studio never released one themselves.
The "white noise" stuff (instrumentals, etc.) definitely helps me focus on my work. The Hanna soundtrack, which is all by one artist, had the perfect atmosphere: creepy, playful, surreal. It helped get me in the right mindset. Fight Night was your standard random movie songs, and I think it might have hurt more than helped. Each song was different enough to draw my attention, and by the time I managed to wrap up the story, I dreaded listening to the opening of "Bad Bad Love." No offense, Alexander. ;)
My wife and I tend to use some long playlist of dupstep or chillstep or *step in order to be motivated while working. It makes everything feel important while you're working on it. I think it's like how some stores will play faster paced music when they are close to closing so shoppers will shop faster.
That depends on the nature of the work or study. If i'm seriously studying, then I prefer not to listen to music. If I'm not studying seriously, then anything goes. If I'm working, I have always been partial to the third movement of the "Moonlight" sonata. Look at those fingers getting things done!
Aaron Siegel, Hauschka and Hildur Guðnadóttir, and pretty much anything instrumental. It has to be so. Lyrics seems to interrupt my focus.
Man I sure wish I could study with music playing. I can write with music playing. I can work and exercise with music. But study? I've tried and tried. I can't do it! I focus too much on the music! I find myself just working to block it out. Maybe I don't listen to the right kind of music. I'll have to examine these suggestions. As far as work or exercise or work, I stick to the music I usually listen to, but minus the slower or ambient stuff. I love listening to Manchester Orchestra, The Front Bottoms, Twenty One Pilots, Angels and Airwaves, and Radical face while I slave away.
