Music With Writing

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Music With Writing

Post by Jesska6029 »

I find listen listening to music when I write to be very beneficial. I really like Ed Sheeran and Ingrid Michaelson. What music do you listen to while you write?
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Post by zeldas_lullaby »

I don't listen to any, because music upsets my emotional centers. (Actually, for that reason, I almost never listen to music at all.) I don't judge, though, 'cause I figure it's different for everyone.

I do sometimes put on the Golden Girls with no volume.
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Post by moderntimes »

I love music but simply cannot listen to music while writing. My passion is for classical & opera, which means highly complex themes and composition. So trying to write while listening to, say, Rigoletto or Mozart's Symphony 41 is just impossible for me.

I do however take writing breaks with my music. That works fine.
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Post by csimmons032 »

I love listening to music when I am writing. Although most of my writing is for school work, I actually find that music helps me concentrate for some reason. It just helps me to relax so that I can focus on what I am doing. Most people would think that it is a distraction, but I think it's quite the opposite. I prefer to listen to more relaxing music so that it will put me in the right mood to concentrate on my school work. I will pretty much listen to any type of music. I enjoy a lot of different genres. Country, pop, Christian, some rock. With the rock music it really depends. I don't like hard core rock, more like the softer rock, where you can actually understand the words. I only listen to a couple of rock artists though. Otherwise, it's not typically the first genre that I go for. Country is usually the first one that I look for. When there isn't anything new in Country, then I will look in the other areas to see if I can find any new people that I like.
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Post by Amera7 »

Zeldas_lullaby I understand what you're saying how listening to music does carry you off into an emotional part of yourself. And that can be good or bad. Sometimes if I'm writing about a particular subject I need music to bring out that spiritual part of me. But if I'm writing about something technical of sorts, then I may not want to listen to it, it's too distracting.
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Post by zeldas_lullaby »

Hey, you hear me? :-D

I used to listen to real heavy stuff--Dire Straits, Alan Parsons, Tears For Fears, etc. It sucked me into a black hole of emotion that I didn't even know was happening. Then I had a manic episode. Frustrated, I sat under a tree for six hours one night. No cell phone, no nothing. Just me in the park, hidden under the tree. When I got out of bed the next day, this information came into my head: quit listening to music. (And a few other things.) I obeyed it and was finally able to separate myself from it and see how it was affecting me. I almost never let myself listen to the heavy stuff anymore.
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Post by normafloresallende »

Music really helps me in the writing process. I prefer instrumental music or at least, if it's vocal, the lyrics must be in a language I don't understand so I don't get distracted by it.
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Post by moderntimes »

Well, I used to sing opera. Yeah, the real stuff, on stage w. costumes and sets and props and singing in French, Italian, or German. And I've sung in classical chorales and high churches too, so you can add Latin to the mix. And so with most any classical vocal music, I know what they're singing and usually can sing along.

Another reason why I simply cannot listen to music while writing. I love music but I get too involved in it (how can you ignore Mozart?) and I lose my writing focus. So all is quiet on the western front when I write. I wish it were otherwise but nope.
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Post by MissMaro »

I can't listen to music as I write because I find I want to pay attention to the music. (I'm a bit of an amateur composer so music interests me way too much to ignore it most of the time.) I do like playing cafe noises (no music, just people talking) in the background when I work at home. I find that helps me to concentrate.
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Post by zeldas_lullaby »

Oh, hey, I'm a composer too! I've written a book's worth of piano solos. :-D I'm actually a better composer than I am a pianist.
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Post by kovac-nikki »

About half the time I write, I listen to music. The other half, I end up turning it off because I simply can't concentrate or hear myself think. When I am really in to a scene, music doesn't bother me. Background noise doesn't bother me. I'm gone. But when I'm struggling with words, it's such a pain.

Usually I'm a country girl (Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Shania Twain, etc). But I also like alternative and some pop. Depends on my mood.
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Post by addseo1115 »

I do sometimes put on the Golden Girls with no volume.
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Post by Max Tyrone »

I mostly write without music, because most of the music I listen to include vocals that really engage me, stealing me from my fidelity with writing. Sometimes, music with no vocals passes through my attention quite well, and so do television sounds. I wrote a whole chapter while The View was on. I think I love the music I listen to with too much of a passion for me to share my attention between its sound and my writing.
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Post by Ammonia »

Sometimes I like listening to some tunes while writing, because it gets me in a certain atmosphere that I would find hard to access otherwise. However, those moments are a rarity.
Since music usually makes me sink fully into it, I'm having difficulties focusing on the writing process and the music at the same time. It's somewhat easier to just plunge deep into my thoughts and my story without music, unless I really need to get into a certain mood in order to portray a scene with words. Whenever I feel like I need music to help me with my writing, I choose from a large variety of genres - from symphonic metal to country ballads. After all, we're just humans and sometimes we need a little bit of a push - whether it's from music or something else. : )
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Post by Eyre-thee-well »

I only listen to music when writing in a particular genre. I have a fantasy book I am working on and I listen to Celtic stations to inspire my mood. But I also have a historical fiction novel I am working on that takes place in the 1870s so I put on the ragtime/Scott Joplin stations (even though the music is a little later than my setting) because it helps put me in that place. All instrumental mostly, lyrics would throw me off.
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