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Music to Let you Concentrate

focusatwill.com

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Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#152

Post by tripzilch »

angersock wrote: post #139
tripzilch wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've always found myself to be most productive when listening to repetitive electronic music - it motivates but also doesn't distract you too much. Yup, goa-trance for me :) Music with a lot of lyrics is most distracting to me, though I've found it also depends on the particular way the vocals are mixed/mastered, on some albums they're much harder to ignore than others. Lyrics in my native tongue (Dutch) are hardes…

If you like goa and whatnot, these folks have some good free tracks scattered across different electronic genres: http://www.ektoplazm.com/

Thanks, I am already aware :) Two recent finds on that site I've been listening to a lot are Mindsphere - Inner Cyclone (old school melodic goa) and Pavel Svimba - Space Babuska (real crazy, poppy psy, reminds of Haltya, some great mixing/mastering, way too distracting for this thread though :) ).

This site shows that it is in fact possible to offer great quality music online for free & legal download. I'm frankly amazed actually, just how it can be. These producers must love their craft so much.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#153

Post by kps »

jwr wrote: post #73

Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions. In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will…

I prefer silence, but since the open-plan fad holds sway here, I've found rain to be the most effective substitute. The best rain track I've found so far is 57 at http://archive.org/details/Sounds_of_Nature_Collection

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#156

Post by swah »

antoncohen wrote: post #137
swah wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But... isn't this exactly like the sound I'm trying to block (coworkers talking!) ? :) [edit] I just read on their page that their theory is "It's pretty hard to be creative in a quiet space". So while I like the "hotel lobbby" feel for some kinds of work, I disagree that silence is bad. OTOH, this might work for me because I can't parse engilsh that well.

No, coworkers walking is distracting because I can hear and understand what they are saying. My mind gets interested and will try to listen. For me it's the same with music that has pronounced lyrics.

Right, so the point is that there is enough people talking at the same time that it becomes noise..

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#158

Post by devindotcom »

jwr wrote: post #97
throwaway183 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Music engages your creative hemisphere. Do you have a source for this?

This precise statement is easily verified (just google it). But I thought I had a source for the "listening to music hampers your creative ability" statement, and I can't seem to find it. You could reason that if you engage the brain with something, then it cannot do another thing at the same time. So if you engage the areas responsible for creative thought processes, these areas will not be available for other tasks…

No, I don't think you can reason that. The brain is engaged in so many simultaneous activities that it is nearly impossible to count or even categorize them. Our understanding of how we think is very poor, and the brain very robust. Moreover, brains and minds are so variable that exception is the rule. Talking about what works for you and making something that helps you (and may help others) is great, but framing it with dubious extrapolations is, I think, misleading.
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