Saturday, September 13, 2008

Music To Write By

MMI'm looking for recommendations for music to write by. I usually need silence when I write, but not always. Sometimes I need music to keep me awake -- I have on occasion successfully written to CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival for you youngsters). But stuff with words I can understand is often distracting. So foreign languages can be all right.
MMAnd sometimes I need music to screen ambient sounds, especially conversation. I have a rather small classical music collection, and haven't really settled on stuff I like to write by. Do you guys have favorites? I reckon that would change according to what you're writing: upbeat, soothing, etc.
MMBTW, I did do some googling without much help. I found this study. I assume the little dears were listening to stuff that I wouldn't call "music."

The effects of background music on word processed writing
S. E. Ransdell and L. Gilroy

Division of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, 2912 College Ave, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA


References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must purchase this article.

Abstract

College students often listen to music while they use a computer. This experiment investigated whether background music disrupts their ability to word process fluently and effectively. Forty-five psychology undergraduates wrote brief expository essays. Background music significantly disrupted writing fluency (words generated per minute controlling for typing speed and including those words deleted before the final draft) even though no response to the music was required. Those with some musical training and high working memory span wrote better essays with longer sentences and were also more likely to pause at clause boundaries. Even unattended music places heavy demands on working memory and disrupts word processed writing.

2 comments:

Debbie Diesen said...

I don't write to music very often, but when I do, it tends to be classical guitar. My Christopher Parkening Plays Bach CD is such a well-loved favorite that listening to it is a soothing, meditative experience.

Janice said...

I'm long time music lover and now passionate on writing fiction and poems, and always have some kind of music going on. But music has really been great at moments when I have a great "ah hah" experience and the words come easy and loud and flow like the mood of the music. Example The other day, having let ideas about a love poem ride in my brain for sometime, turning on Josh Grobin, all of a sudden writing as fast as I could, I had a great piece written! After all that labor, thinking, wow! That's how I find music inspiring and a big boomer in my life and creativity.