Do You Listen To Music While You Write?
Filed under General • 15-06-2010 •
I often listen to music while working on stories and novels. Listening to music can mask distracting noises from the outside world. It can also help propel the rythmn of a piece of writing. But the music has to be carefully chosen.
Lyrics can be a problem. I find writing while listening to someone else’s words as difficult as doing mental arithmetic in a room full of people shouting out random numbers. I find myself singing along instead of coming up with my own sentences. A catchy beat can have the same effect.
Instrumental music works best for me. I find film soundtracks especially useful, and often listen to Vangelis’ Blade Runner and Ennio Morricone’s The Mission because they manage to be both atmospheric and dramatic without being too distracting. I find Blade Runner particularly good for “setting the mood” when writing science fiction.
My regular writing playlist also includes albums of classical music, jazz and electronia. Placed on random shuffle, they seem to keep the critical side of my brain occupied, allowing the creative side to run riot over the keyboard.
In no particular order, my top “writing” albums include:
- Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis. A true jazz classic, reminscent of back alleys and smoky nightclubs.
- Eternal Sky and Let Not The Flame Die Out by Anubian Lights. Two albums of evocative Egyptian-flavoured ambient techno lounge space rock.
- Rite by Julian Cope & Donald Ross Skinner. Four slabs of meditational cosmic funk, for those times when the words are flowing.
- Blade Runner by Vangelis. The classic electronic score to one of the all-time great science fiction movies. Curiously nostalgic and futuristic all at the same time.
- The Mission by Ennio Morricone. The soundtrack to a film I’ve never seen, containing enough drama and beauty to fire the imagination off in a hundred directions at once.
Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what works for you?
Tags: Anubian Lights • Blade Runner • Ennio Morricone • Julian Cope • Miles Davis • Music • Vangelis • Writing
I always write with music and I always wear headphones – even if the house is empty and I am not in danger of annoying my wife with it.
Oddly perhaps, I prefer music with lyrics. I have tried film soundtracks, but I find them too “up and down” – far too many quiet bits and then when the action music comes along, if I’m not writing an action scene then it actually puts me off my pace.
However, I do find lyrics I know to be very distracting, so I listen to the internet radio station SomaFM. They have about two dozen channels to suit lots of tastes, and the benefit of my chosen stream (Indie Pop Rocks) is that while I like the music, chances are I have never heard the band or song before as their playlist is mammoth beyond mammoth.
And then on the odd occassion when a song comes along that I do know and like, I can take a little three minute break!
Definitely agree on instrumental being better; I can’t concentrate on fiction if there’s lyrics involved (though strangely it doesn’t seem to bother me so much when writing non-fic, or when brainstorming story shapes).
Post-rock and post-metal are my usual fare, then: Explosions in the Sky, Mono, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, If These Trees Could Talk, Pelican, many more. The mighty And So I Watch You From Afar are good for lively passages, too!
Then there’s the electronica: mostly nineties stuff (Leftfield, Underworld, Massive Attack, various trip-hop and turntablism albums and collections), but Eno’s ambient pioneering stuff is good too.
I can listen to songs with vocals as long as the vocals are in a foreign language. That way, because my brain can’t understand the lyrics it interprets the singing as just another instrument. I have CDs of Cuban and Japanese music that work well. French not si much, as I recognise too many words and unconciously start trying to riddle out the meaning of the song, thereby interrupting my creative flow.
Phillip Glass’s Qatsi Trilogy is my go to for writing. I try to avoid lyrics whenever possible as well, and when it comes to editing, bass/beat music really gets me going. I also like sounds of nature, particularly rain storms. They always lure me into my most creative stride. Thanks for sharing.
Radio 3 for working, unless they’ve reached one of their talkie bits, or opera, or I’m doing something that’s complicated (usually editing); if not satisfied with Radio and not doing something complicated, I turn to CDs, and I tend to favour Renaissance church music or anything choral. I collect requiems. My faovurite modern composer, James MacMillan, is a little too noisy to work to.
Having said that, I’ve spent most of the last week working to the Springwatch webcams with the window minimised. The birdsong has been fantastic.
Nothing when I’m reading. It just distracts me.
When I’m reading or writing or editing I listen to new age, classical, smooth jazz, various electronic genres, and some post-rock. I usually prefer instrumental work, but if I can’t understand the lyrics I don’t get distracted by them. Even some artists who sing in English, like Enya and Low, seem to work well for me.
For first drafts I listen to pretty much anything although I generally avoid lyrically heavy stuff – lyrics that involve stories, or odd rhythmic structures that make it hard to push the music into the background are a no no. I usually create a play list for a given project or phase of a project and listen to it until I can recite whole songs.
For redrafting I listen to a loop of classical music as I live in a terrace and I need something to drown the noise out but I find lyrics are a major distraction when trying to engage my redrafting skills.
In both cases, like Adam, I use headphones as that bubble of sound helps me float away from the world long enough to Get Shit Done.
Anything instrumental is necessary and sufficient.
There seems to be a loose consensus emerging.