Good Music to Listen to While Studying/Reading

[FoghornBellows]

I learned long ago that it is difficult to concentrate while listening to Andrew Bird or Tom Waits while studying, so I developed a tepid to slightly smoldering passion for classical music.
I want to strongly suggest Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2. It is exultant.
I was hoping others would contribute to this thread by offering other excellent, non-vocal music that augments concentrated study or reading.

[Red-Headed]

I learned long ago that it is difficult to concentrate while listening to Andrew Bird or Tom Waits while studying, so I developed a tepid to slightly smoldering passion for classical music.
I want to strongly suggest Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2. It is exultant.
I was hoping others would contribute to this thread by offering other excellent, non-vocal music that augments concentrated study or reading.

I often listen to Puccini & Wagner operas while I read. I don't speak Italian or German so they may as well be instrumental. I like Vaughan Williams as well, particularly The Lark Ascending & Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis.

[Mathor]

Mogwai, Explosions in The Sky, Do Make Say Think.

When I'm studying, light ambience is usually the way to go.

[Lokasenna]

I go through periods... at the moment, I'm listening to a lot of Liszt, though until recently I was heavily in to my Brahms as backing music - both work well!

[Red-Headed]

I go through periods... at the moment, I'm listening to a lot of Liszt, though until recently I was heavily in to my Brahms as backing music - both work well!

As long as you don't overdo it at your local & get too Brahms & Liszt!


Sorry, I'll get my coat...

[marcolfo]

i like to listen to jazz. some coltrane, davies, a bit of gillespie.

[Captain_Kuchiki]

Spacemusic podcasts.

[morgana]

Mozart is good too. It helps me focus.

[stlukesguild]

Well... I don't commonly find my self "studying" in a formal sense or the word. As for reading and music... I tend to take music more seriously than something to be reduced to a mere background noise, and at the same time... reading poetry as much as I do... I'm not fond of the notion of music interfering with the internal "music" of what I am reading. If I do listen to music when I read it will be while reading something light... postings on line... a magazine or newspaper... and then the music I tend to chose will be almost anything... as long as I am quite familiar with it... so it doesn't jar me with any surprises.

[calebjross]

Lyric-less songs work best for me when writing (silence is best when reading). I did a recent post over at Justin Holt's (a fellow writer) blog, where I list some of the songs that do the most damage.

Those being:
Tom Waits, Night on Earth – Having long been a fan of Waits, I adopted this album after tagging individual, instrumental songs from my entire Waits collection to create a writing playlist. At the time, I had no idea this album existed. It’s hard to find, but definitely worth the hunt. It has the feel of Waits’ Rain Dogs trilogy from the 80s, dissonance and percussion galore. Perfect for writing flawed characters.

Bohren und Der Club of Gore, Geisterfaust and Sunset Mission – Alex Martin turned me on to these guys a couple years back. By far, this band is the most played writing music in my collection. Though all of their songs are similar in mood and tone, I welcome the seemingly seamless feel, as it allows the music to fade into the background beautifully. Their style: slow ambient jazz, but way better than that description implies.

Bush, Razorblade Suitcase – definitely the most lyrically-dense album in my list, this one snuck in likely for nostalgic reasons. I re-fell in love with this album during college, when two of the stories from Charactered Pieces were written (the title story and “The Camel of Morocco”). This album must have reawakened some synapses, acting as a psychic bridge to the stories’ origins. Lyrics usually bother me when writing, but this album transcended that wall.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Yanqui U.X.O.- Menacing might best describe the feel of this album. GYBE is one of those oft-referenced bands, but rarely adequately described. Not that their sound is experimental in any way, but the fluid, meandering style has the tendency to confuse rather than offer itself up for categorization. A lot of Charactered Pieces was arranged at a macro level to this album, moving full chucks of stories around (as opposed to line-edits). These songs are long (four of the five tracks are over fifteen minutes) and have a story-arc sensibility, often building from simple progressions to multiple layers, which I think helped in this macro arranging.

Russian Circles, Station – A bit more rock than I would normally listen to while writing, but it’s chugging riffs are more Tool than, say, Anthrax, giving the album the much desired mood quality so important to writing. I came to this album late in the edits, so its impact is likely reflected only superficially. But still, it’s there.

NIN, Ghosts I-IV – this album was a godsend. Simple. I remember quite vividly, being stuck with the edits, unsure why a certain story wasn’t working. Then a friend emailed me about Ghosts, with a link to a FREE (and legal) download. Everything clicked during my first listen. This is mic-less Trent Reznor’s self-described “dreamscape” album, full of loops and industrial beauty that has a way of coaxing the right synapses at the right times.