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Music while you are reading or writing. Life's Theme Song?

novella

novella

Active Member
AHHHHHH!

The hub and kid are playing Also Sprach Zarathustra, Holst's The Planets, Carmina Burana, and other noncalming musical noises. They are having father-son fun! It's genetic, I think.

I am not a listen-while-working person. I can barely think if I hear a bird twittering. I feel like my life has a theme song right now, and it's all going down the tubes, with fire and brimstone.

They love this bombastic stuff while they're working (reading and studying). I would like a hat that simulates the aural experience of being underwater. Can someone invent that please?

Lucky we have doors around here. :)

Can you read or write with music on?

If your life had a theme-song, what would it be?
 
I'll throw on headphones sometimes while I'm studying. music is great for that. it keeps me from getting tired.

theme song: I wanna **** myself, gg allin.
 
When I'm writing, I need background music. I think because I've always been so into soundtracks, when I'm working on a scene, I need that score to back it up - it helps dig up the emotions and set the scene for what I'm trying to do. I remember, finding this one song on one of my soundtracks and I was immediately struck with how perfect it'd be for the scene I was trying to write so I popped it in and looped that one song over and over until I completed the entire scene. I've had music actually get my brain working, getting me out of blocks and helping me figure out which direction to go.

It can't have words, though. If your family wants some very cool, epic sounding classical, they ought to try Samuel Barber. Not Adagio...that's a bit on the dull side. But some of his other orchestral pieces. Wow! Or Pines of Rome by Respighi. That's another good one that really builds to the end.

My life's theme song...I don't know if I have a set one. I've got several I've composed that probably could be it. I mean, if it were my theme song, it'd have to be purely me, I suppose. Not for something or someone else. I can imagine my life having a soundtrack, though. Makes me think of the keyboard guy on Truman Show. Heh heh. Gotta get me one of those!
 
Interesting what you said, Hollis, about writing and listening.

I have three songs I'm listening to that I relate to the book I'm working on. I never listen to them when I'm actually writing, but I listen to them a lot when I'm trying to work out a scene in my head, like when I'm driving in the car.

Over Time by Lucinda Williams, and Outsider by the Ramones, and Rock of Ages by Grant Lee Buffalo, depending what character I'm getting into. They have words, of course, but when you know a song so well, the words fade into the background and just give you mood and these all take me to a specific place.

re Barber, they've got it, and no offense, but I'm trying to get away from that kind of music. Whenever I hear it, I feel like it's chasing me through life and I can feel the timpanis bearing down on me like a wave. It makes me very anxious and unhappy.
 
I can't have any music playing when I'm reading, writing or studying, it's just too distracting. I like to concentrate on one or the other. My friend always had her radio on low in the background, even when she was sleeping, which I could not understand. I'm sure some people are afraid of silence!

Theme song: Possibly How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths.
 
I always have music on when I'm reading or writing. Instead of distracting me, it helps me concentrate. (Weird, huh?) If I didn't have it, I wouldn't be able to concentrate. Silence is too distracting for me.
 
I've always had a hard time reading if there is music on, or any kind of noise. Music tends to take my focus away from the task at hand. As for writing with music on, well I can't do that even when it's not on, so I guess it doesn't matter. :D

I'm not really sure about a theme song, perhaps Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy.
 
I prefer listening to music when I am writing something. While reading -- well, it depends. If the book is gripping, then I dont care whats going on around me, I am too immersed in the book. If the book is okay-okay then I need to turn off the music, shut the neighbour's kid up and then continue reading. :D
Theme song -- None.
 
I like to have music on when I am working, but when I am reading, I could really care less what noise is going on around me unless it is a screaming kid.
Theme song? nope, I like too many different kinds of music to choose just one.
 
When writing I like to have music playing quietly in the background, and never rock or anything too abrasive, as this definitely has a tendency to disrupt my thought patterns. But a nice beat helps me maintain rhythm in the story.

Currently 1 Giant Leap (self-titled), Tortoise - TNT and Swayzak - Fabric 11 are providing the soundtrack to this story.

When reading I don't really like music however if I am totally immersed in a book I can easily read with radio and television blaring in the same room and it won't make any difference.
 
It depends on whats going on in the house. I do most of my heavy duty writing in the morning before the house gets up. Usually I edit at night--then I can stand a little music. But when I write its usually just the hum of the fridge or the washer or something, maybe if the kids are up and they want to watch a video I'll let them so its Blues Clues in the background (thats a rare day though. Most of the time I have to quit after everyone gets up.)

Generally? No music when I'm writing. Its kinda like trying to do your homework while you're watching Scooby Doo. *shudder
 
No music when reading or writing. Generally when I need to think, it must be quiet.

Since I don't think all that often, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Theme Song - You Oughta Know, Alanis Morrisette. Nah, just kidding. No theme song.


ds
 
Libra6Poe said:
Only if I don't know the lyrics. If I know the lyrics, I'll just sing along and distract myself.
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Likewise. Same with classical music, which is simply too detailed for me to concentrate on anything else. I start separating out the different instruments and imagining the sheet music and looking for tempo changes, etc.

My partner on the other hand has tinitus, which means that in our house there is always background music (perhaps that was your friends problem too Halo). I don't mind it sometimes, but when I have a deadline or something that requires a great deal of concentration I just can't handle it.

The morning is my favorite time to do things that require a lot of concentration. The hum of the fridge is so therapeutic.
 
Kookamoor said:
. The hum of the fridge is so therapeutic.
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When I was a baby I liked to sleep next to the running clothes drier. It was my surrogate mother. The warm white metal, the hum and whoosh and cozy smell . . .whaaaa! :(
 
bobbyburns said:
theme song: I wanna **** myself, gg allin.
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Oh, man. I haven't listened to GG Allin since high school. I had actually kinda forgotten about that. I remember watching a pretty sick video of his.

Anyway, I can't listen to anything, especially the TV or talk radio, but music just slows me down. According to my psychologist's test, my IQ test scores go from above normal without audible noise to below normal with audible noise. If I give you mean looks when you're making noise in the library, there's a reason.
 
I think I saw the gg video you're talking about. did he tie a dude up to a tree and piss in his mouth, while reading a poem?
 
Yeah, I believe so. It's coming up on ten years since I would've last seen it, so I tend to lose some of the details. I'll PM you so that everyone doesn't have to read the antics of GG.
 
When i'm reading, I always have my iPod on blasting away. Can't read in silence. Usually listen to Indie/Rock (Kings of Leon, Libertines, Killers, Oasis etc....)
 
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