Does anybody listen to music while they read?

[Brock]

I'm just interested to know. Most music just distracts me (anything with a driving rhythm or lyrics) but I sometimes find myself listening to certain pieces of classical music or choir music while I read. Often, this actually helps me concentrate. Some examples of music I listen to while reading are: Allegri's Miserere, pieces by John Tavener, Part, Faure's Requim...

Anyone else? :nopity:

[Riesa]

If the task I am doing requires focusing at all, I can't listen to music, it's way too distracting, but reading while listening to the wind or the ocean can be very nice.

[David Lurie]

I always listen to music when I read, I used to do it even when I was a student and my best results at University are linked to the great records I was listening at the time, every textbook had its record, as a fact it helped me to focus on what I was studying, it gave rhythm and unity to the text. I'm talking about music without sung text of course.

[Patrick_Bateman]

When I am reading non fiction I can listen to music at the same time, with fiction and more demanding reading I can't it's too distracting.

[Brock]

Interesting responses! Especially the idea that music can improve reading and writing. Reminds me of Inspector Morse who can solve crimes easier after a pint of Speckled Hen...

[Propter W.]

Music rarely matches the atmosphere of the books I'm reading and I also find it very distracting. Reading for school or non-fiction is a different matter, but I still prefer to read in silence.

[Lokasenna]

Yes, I usually listen to music - exactly what depends on the mood, though its almost always something classical or operatic.

[The Comedian]

I avoid listening to music of any sort when I read. Too distracting. . .Though I do like to read outdoors, if the weather allows it. So I guess bird songs, chipmunk scampering, wind. .. don't bother me that much.

[YesNo]

Most music just distracts me (anything with a driving rhythm or lyrics)
I've often found music too distracting to listen to, even classical music, when I'm doing anything else but listening to the music.

Also, I've been trying to practice a certain discipline which involves consciously not multi-tasking, that is, I deliberately try to do only doing one thing at a time. For example, I will sometimes nibble on something or drink coffee and read at the same time, but I've stopped doing that as well. It is now either eating or reading but not both at the same time.

I don't know if that is going to help anything, but it does slow me down and makes me pay attention to what I'm doing at the moment.

[sparkly buttons]

Yes I am trying to listen to the White Album at the same time as reading right now and boy are they competing.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

When reading, no. But, when I'm working on something (a paper, research, etc.), I usually turn on some classical. I usually turn it one while I'm just on the computer in general. Classical's the only type of music that helps me concentrate.

[stlukesguild]

It depends upon the type of reading. If its something light... magazines, non-fiction that isn't particularly challenging (nor particularly artful)... the internet... research for daily lesson plans... then yes, I can and do listen to music. If I'm reading poetry (which has an internal "music") or even most artistic prose which has something of the same... then no, I find that the music interferes. Nor do I read while giving a serious listen to a work of music. I don't think you can give your full attention to two art forms simultaneously.

[Emil Miller]

Reading and listening are two separate disciplines and each requires the full attention of the reader/listener if they are to be meaningful. It is a measure of how we have been dinned down by mechanised sub-musical pap that the the question needs to be asked at all.

[missmeadowsweet]

I am working on two pretty intense lit courses right now and I have to write for quite awhile just about every day. I am the kind of person who picks up on lyrics to songs really quickly, so listening to music is too distracting because the music will win over what I'm working on every time, but I like listening to soundtracks from movies or classical music. Also, since baseball season started I have really been enjoying listening to a baseball game (like I'm doing right now) while I write. Just reading (as opposed to referencing books as I write) is more difficult.

[Buh4Bee]

I can read with music on, but I'm not really listening. It's like studying in the house with all the background noise and TV on. If things get too loud, I get distracted. In college, I used to put on music and drift in and out. I'd read, then sing a few lyrics and return to reading.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

It depends upon the type of reading. If its something light... magazines, non-fiction that isn't particularly challenging (nor particularly artful)... the internet... research for daily lesson plans... then yes, I can and do listen to music. If I'm reading poetry (which has an internal "music") or even most artistic prose which has something of the same... then no, I find that the music interferes. Nor do I read while giving a serious listen to a work of music. I don't think you can give your full attention to two art forms simultaneously.
I don't know about anyone else, but I can barely give any attention to two things at once. If I have music on and I'm reading (and I mean immersively, not like magazines or textbooks) the music might as well not be on. That's probably more of a reason why I don't have music on when I read--it's useless. I can listen to music and type at the same time (as I'm doing now) but I still don't hear the music very much, and if I try to really listen to it while typing, my typing suffers. When I play video games, I often turn on talk radio (still the only person I know of who does this) but I don't know why I do. I don't even hear it. I guess it's nice for when the game is loading.

Reading and listening are two separate disciplines and each requires the full attention of the reader/listener if they are to be meaningful. It is a measure of how we have been dinned down by mechanised sub-musical pap that the the question needs to be asked at all.
I don't know. I think, for some, some easy listening like calm classical or mellow jazz can actually help people read. Total silence can unnerve some (as it does me, occasionally), and I'm sure this unnervement is definitely a product of our noisy world.

I do quite enjoy reading outside, though. The sounds of nature really do seem to be the perfect complement.

[stlukesguild]

Reading and listening are two separate disciplines and each requires the full attention of the reader/listener if they are to be meaningful. It is a measure of how we have been dinned down by mechanised sub-musical pap that the the question needs to be asked at all.

Of course I might play the devil's advocate, Brian, and note that our current, reverent approach to classical music is something quite new. In the time of Mozart and later the classical concert was really a social event with comings and goings by the audience, smoking, talking, eating, drinking, etc...

[Emil Miller]

[COLOR="DarkRed"[/COLOR]

Of course I might play the devil's advocate, Brian, and note that our current, reverent approach to classical music is something quite new. In the time of Mozart and later the classical concert was really a social event with comings and goings by the audience, smoking, talking, eating, drinking, etc...

“Well Mozart wrote background music and the electric guitar is the favoured choice of instrument nowadays. In my day it was the clarinet or the trumpet,” said Mr Silberman.
“Mozart did write Tafelmusik but it was composed and notated, not sung along to an electric guitar. Moreover, he didn't walk about in a pair of jeans with his knees hanging out like a farm labourer and revel in the vernacular. Of course the electric guitar is the favoured instrument today rather than the clarinet or trumpet, and why? I’ll tell you why, it’s because you can’t strum a reed or a brass instrument, both of which have to be learned,” said Jolyon contemptuously.

This is an extract from my latest book 'A Tangled Web' that is currently under revision.

If you were to walk into the Munich Hofbräuhaus today, you would find people behaving in much the same way while a Bavarian band played a selection of traditional German songs. It's difficult to imagine that audiences in Mozart's time treated any of his music as equivalent to that played in a beer hall but it appears to be the case.

[David Lurie]

Reading and listening are two separate disciplines and each requires the full attention of the reader/listener if they are to be meaningful. It is a measure of how we have been dinned down by mechanised sub-musical pap that the the question needs to be asked at all.

I guess you don't like movies.

[TacoButt]

Interesting thread. I've never related to people who say that "classical music helps me relax," or "classical music is great background for reading," etc.

To me any great music immediately takes over the entire sphere of perception. Trying to cook with Mozart going on, I completely forget how many teaspoons of cumin I put in. I can't successfully measure a single cup of water.

Trying to read with Bach's Goldberg Variations going on would be like trying to have sex while changing my sparkplugs during an earthquake. Cannot do.

[Brock]

Trying to read with Bach's Goldberg Variations going on would be like trying to have sex while changing my sparkplugs during an earthquake. Cannot do.

:lol:

[Varenne Rodin]

I avoid listening to music of any sort when I read. Too distracting. . .Though I do like to read outdoors, if the weather allows it. So I guess bird songs, chipmunk scampering, wind. .. don't bother me that much.

I'll steal that answer. Books make their own music.

[Venerable Bede]

I never listen to music if I am reading seriously. If it's less serious, like an online blog or a magazine then I'll sometimes put some music on. A lot of the time I like to listen to music if I'm writing papers; I find it actually helps me write faster.

[Desolation]

When I was a younger, more inexperienced reader, I listened to music while I read. And then, one day, I was reading an Eastern spirituality book that my dad wanted me to read, and it said something along the lines of "Listening to music while reading is bad reading and bad listening." I immediately took off my headphones, and never went back.

Nowadays, though, my roommate blasts music at full volume all day and all night, so it's almost impossible to read in silence. I'm trying my best to get used to it and over the distraction. Sometimes I'm tempted to go out and yell at him to turn down the music, but then he looks at me with this big goofy smile that shows me how happy the music makes him (and how it's integral to his completion of school/art work), and I just don't have the heart.

[Emil Miller]

I guess you don't like movies.

Well it's not the same, because film music and film are integral to each other.

[David Lurie]

Well it's not the same, because film music and film are integral to each other.

I'm not that sure about this, it could be true when a filmmaker uses new music, but does integration happen when he uses already existing music? when the filmmaker cuts and arranges music you know and love to fit the needs of his movie?
When we watch a movie - or go to the opera - we accept to do a multitasking activity: acting, music, scenography, photography et cetera.
When I read I try to create an environment of my liking: my room and its furniture, the place where I seat, the things surrounding me, it's a set(-up) I have created to enhance my relationship with the artifacts I love, I am the director there, and just like in a movie I can choose music or silence to set the pace of my experience. Needless to say when I choose silence I read faster but it's just one of the possible options at my disposal, when some music - or a sip of cognac or a puff of cigar or a look at my room - demand my attention most of the time they are a welcomed interruption, because they change the pace of my reading and they give me a chance to meditate upon a phrase or go back a few pages to check a passage I liked, or they simply constitute a side-story to the book I'm reading, some other time the mix doesn't work then I simply stop/change the music or close the book.
Furthermore I think the brain works in funny ways, sometimes I am so focused on the book that I realize my hi-fi was playing a record only when the music ends, what's funny about this? the funny part is that the morning after, that piece of music that went - apparently - unheard, is clearly resounding into my mind, the first time that this happened I couldn't understand what was that music or when it had come to my attention, I thought about it the whole day and finally I decided it had to be the record I had listened the night before while reading, when I got back home I grabbed that record and played it - of course I'm talking about a new record, music I had never heard before - and it was a stunning and beautiful sensation to realize that my brain had memorized that piece of music notwithstanding my (apparent) full immersion into reading.

[Emil Miller]

I'm not that sure about this, it could be true when a filmmaker uses new music, but does integration happen when he uses already existing music? when the filmmaker cuts and arranges music you know and love to fit the needs of his movie?
When we watch a movie - or go to the opera - we accept to do a multitasking activity: acting, music, scenography, photography et cetera.
When I read I try to create an environment of my liking: my room and its furniture, the place where I seat, the things surrounding me, it's a set(-up) I have created to enhance my relationship with the artifacts I love, I am the director there, and just like in a movie I can choose music or silence to set the pace of my experience. Needless to say when I choose silence I read faster but it's just one of the possible options at my disposal, when some music - or a sip of cognac or a puff of cigar or a look at my room - demand my attention most of the time they are a welcomed interruption, because they change the pace of my reading and they give me a chance to meditate upon a phrase or go back a few pages to check a passage I liked, or they simply constitute a side-story to the book I'm reading, some other time the mix doesn't work then I simply stop/change the music or close the book.
Furthermore I think the brain works in funny ways, sometimes I am so focused on the book that I realize my hi-fi was playing a record only when the music ends, what's funny about this? the funny part is that the morning after, that piece of music that went - apparently - unheard, is clearly resounding into my mind, the first time that this happened I couldn't understand what was that music or when it had come to my attention, I thought about it the whole day and finally I decided it had to be the record I had listened the night before while reading, when I got back home I grabbed that record and played it - of course I'm talking about a new record, music I had never heard before - and it was a stunning and beautiful sensation to realize that my brain had memorized that piece of music notwithstanding my (apparent) full immersion into reading.

Film music is usually written to enhance the action being portrayed on the screen or is purloined from an existing score and adapted accordingly. A classic case is the use of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto for David Lean's Brief Encounter. Noel Coward, the story's author, said that no other music would suffice; he was right and many people in the UK became acquainted with the concerto through the film. However, reading and watching a film or a stage presentation are two different disciplines because, in the first we are obliged to visualise in the mind's eye the characters and action of the story, whereas in the second, it's done for us and it's for this reason that background music enhances rather than detracts. In the case of non-fiction, I don't see that musical accompaniment would be anything other than a distraction. If, for example, I am reading an historical account of the battle of Borodino, I don't need to have Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture playing in the background even though it is a musically graphic account of the event. In the case that you have mentioned, whereby you were able to recall a piece of music that you had completely blotted out whilst reading the day before, I'm unable to confirm this personally because, as I say, I never listen to music while reading and vice versa.

[TheChilly]

Used to listen to trance a lot during reading... and now I'm switching to classical music.

[CheeseTree]

I like to read with the music on. Sometimes the music would be distracting, but usually I will be more into the book. Normally, I would like to choose some piano music. It will help me to be more thoughtful. :)

[mal4mac]

I like to read with the music on. Sometimes the music would be distracting, but usually I will be more into the book. Normally, I would like to choose some piano music. It will help me to be more thoughtful. :)

To avoid mutual distraction, why not listen to the music *before* reading? I find listening to, say, a Mozart Piano Concerto and then reading a few chapters of, say, Dickens, then another Mozart Piano Concerto... and so on... is a great way to proceed - enabling me to give equal concentration to two geniuses, with them mutually providing a "break as good as a rest".

It would seem an insult to Herr Mozart if I tried to blank him out by reading Mr Dickens at the same time... There is some evidence ("the Mozart Effect") that music does make you more thoughtful ("enhances short-term cognitive abilities") but the experiments were made with participants fully concentrating on the music, and then the results were observed after the music had finished. Personally, I don't listen to music to get this effect, I'd just rather listen to Mozart than do anything else! But it's a nice subsidiary reason...

[iverson]

it depends. if i ready some relax book, i would like to listen music. but i am reading the text book, or something need me to think, i will not listen to anything. cause that will distract me.

[TacoButt]

Another barrier for the music/reading thing for me...

If I were sitting there reading Great Expectations, a brandy in my hand and listening to some Mozart String Quartet...

I'd probably have a moment of, "Oh, God...this is so @#$%^ pretentious!"
:ciappa:

[Big Dante]

I often do, just quietly in the background, some 70 or 80's soft rock playing in the background.

^ I have to do this now, excuse me.

[Brock]

Another barrier for the music/reading thing for me...

If I were sitting there reading Great Expectations, a brandy in my hand and listening to some Mozart String Quartet...

I'd probably have a moment of, "Oh, God...this is so @#$%^ pretentious!"
:ciappa:

Try this: sitting in front of a warm fire, while the wind and rain lashes against your windows, slippers and socks wrapped around your feet, comfortably clad in woolly pyjamas, a large tumbler of glennfidich at your fingers, tchaikovsky's June from the seasons playing in the background from a romantic and slowly-spinning vinyl. You turn the page of your Kindle, your soft and calm eyes smiling dreamily from beneath their lids. Above your fireplace are family portraits stretching back to the reign of the Tudors, while a scyther glitters among them, a family heirloom with a legend.

Suddenly, you hear a rap on the window. You drop your Kindle, and move quickly to the....


(Sorry I got carried away...)

[libernaut]

most definitely listen to music while i read

[TacoButt]

T

Suddenly, you hear a rap on the window. You drop your Kindle, and move quickly to the....


(Sorry I got carried away...)

You've hooked me! Wait, let me turn down Mathis der Maler....okay, please continue!

[Emil Miller]

Try this: sitting in front of a warm fire, while the wind and rain lashes against your windows, slippers and socks wrapped around your feet, comfortably clad in woolly pyjamas, a large tumbler of glennfidich at your fingers, tchaikovsky's June from the seasons playing in the background from a romantic and slowly-spinning vinyl. You turn the page of your Kindle, your soft and calm eyes smiling dreamily from beneath their lids. Above your fireplace are family portraits stretching back to the reign of the Tudors, while a scyther glitters among them, a family heirloom with a legend.

Suddenly, you hear a rap on the window. You drop your Kindle, and move quickly to the....


(Sorry I got carried away...)

It's all there, the slippers, the woolly pyjamas, the glenfiddich, Tchaikovsky, the vinyl , but spare us the kindle?

[Delta40]

I like dialogue. I can hear the tv from my office. It is thought provoking when you're not looking at the screen.....

[marcolfo]

yes, but nothing with lyrics and not too loud.

some, explosions in the sky, tortoise, mogwai, austin tv, god is an astronaut, do make say think or classical music or just some good old jazz.

[Brock]

It's all there, the slippers, the woolly pyjamas, the glenfiddich, Tchaikovsky, the vinyl , but spare us the kindle?

No! The Kindle is a vital object and a symbol of technological innovation! All hail the Kindle! :)

(Besides, it turns up later in the story...)

[Vonny]

I listen to Brahms a lot when I read. It has a comforting association for me. The sonatas are nice because they don't get really quiet and then crash loudly, and they sound happy.

[cyberbob]

Hell yeah. Especially when I have really long reading sessions, I'll turn on the radio to snap me back to reality so I can concentrate.

I find that when I read too long I zone out and, although I'm still reading, I'm not reading as analytically.

I don't put it too loud and I prefer either upbeat or smooth music, not so much heavy stuff like metal or w/e.

[chipper]

i do. i actually listen to loud noisy music. somehow, it helps me concentrate more.

either that or a movie while i read.

[L€lä RËmØ MÅðçÂ]

Actually, I do. Hey TacoButt.

I either have opera music or instrumentals playing in HEADPHONES. I also listen to whatever songs and put them on low on a stereo. I hate listening to punk rock will reading, so I dont.

[Vlad Dracula]

Definitely, no..:) I like "to live" the subject of the book I read or the tune I listen, so that I cannot do them same time!

[TheChilly]

I'm just interested to know. Most music just distracts me (anything with a driving rhythm or lyrics) but I sometimes find myself listening to certain pieces of classical music or choir music while I read. Often, this actually helps me concentrate. Some examples of music I listen to while reading are: Allegri's Miserere, pieces by John Tavener, Part, Faure's Requim...

Anyone else? :nopity:

Classical music helps me, along with anything from the 90's.