Music That Helps You Focus
 

I did a search for this and couldn't find anything.. I was wondering what kind of music everyone listens to at work or school that helps them focus on what they need to do. Mine varies but when I really need to focus I put on some deep house or some smoothed out Drum and Bass. Of course when there's a deadline approaching I put in the nasty DnB or Jungle and get movin..

So basically let me and others know what keeps you focused :thumbsup:

It's all about The White Stripes. I have a playlist of the relaxing stripes songs.

None of it, and I've tried a lot: classical, minimalist, new age, rock, country, blues, instrumental "art rock," you name it.

I think the whole idea that music can keep you focused is a myth. Maybe it keeps you entertained while working on boring things, maybe it keeps your energy up, but it can be nothing but a distraction...

...to me, anyway.

Classical music, no lyrics, and it has to be something I'm not familiar with. The worst is if I've performed the song in some context; I have to change the station.

If you need to focus in math, then Mozart should be your music of choice. A colleague of mine, Fran Rauscher, was the lead researcher in what was called "The Mozart Effect" about 10 years ago. The basic meat of the research shows that students who listen to Mozart experience a boost in their spatial-reasoning skills (math, sort of). Here are some highlights:

In 1993, a pilot study found that preschool children given music training displayed significant improvement in spatial reasoning ability. (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw) An experiment with college students found that, after listening to a Mozart sonata, they experienced a significant although temporary gain in spatial reasoning skills (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky, Nature, Vol. 365 [1993]: 611).

In 1994, a Stage II follow-up to the pilot study again found that music training improved spatial reasoning in preschool children. This gain did not occur in those without music training (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, Linda Levine and Katherine Ky, Paper presented at the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles [August 1994]).

In 1995, a follow up to the first Mozart study confirmed that listening to Mozart improved spatial reasoning, and that this effect can increase with repeated testing over days. However, the effect may not occur when music lacks sufficient complexity. (Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky, Neuroscience Letters, Vol. 185 [1995]: 44-47.)

Do a search on Frances Rauscher or "The Mozart Effect," for a ton of links.

MMMMmmmm Drum n' Bass. I love studying / working with that music. I also listen to electronic ambiant music as in "The Future Sound of London" :thumbsup:

Mozart effect:

I don't claim to be a friend of the researchers (Warrrreagle, you have a very interesting life!), and I have never read the study, but from what I understand from other scholars (e.g., Stephen Pinker - an MIT professor who studies how the mind works), an awful lot about this study that is reported in the media is simply not true.

For example, as Warrrrr.. points out, the effect has only been found with college students. Mozart does not make babies smarter. (I hadn't heard about the first two studies Warrr.... cited, though that seems to be about musical training rather than listening to music)

It is temporary. I think I read it lasted about 10 minutes

It does not occur simultaneously. In other words, the subjects took a test, listened to some mozart, then took another test (I assume not the same test again b/c that would be a very poorly designed study) with no music playing. They did measuringly better on the second test, but then would revert to "normal."

Why is this? No idea. Maybe they had time while listeing to the music to think about the types of questions asked on the test. Maybe listening to music makes you more conscious of certain kinds of logical structures and relationships. No idea.

My points on this are twofold:

1) Don't believe everything you read about the "Mozart Effect"

2) Even the Mozart Effect does not indicate that playing music while working enhances your ability.

I listen to post-rock like Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky. They often have simple, repetitive, slowly-developing rhythms which help you relax.

i'm skeptical that any of it makes you focus. it make the time pass more quickly, but i don't think i'm more focused on a separate task when the music is on.

Dave Brubeck - Take Five


the song just relaxes me and helps me focus a little bit better (assuming it doesn't knock me right into a nap). and when I was in middle school and early high school I would listen to the theme from Mission Impossible on a loop when I'd be doing work at midnight the night before it was due.

If I'm writing I'll listen to very fast songs as my typing will go along with the music and be less monotonous. If I'm reading usually a playlist of acoustic songs.

If I really need to get creative I'll pop in Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album. It's odd and doesn't follow any convential idea of what music should be.

I absolutely agree with every caveat you've mentioned. I met Fran Rauscher in 1994 when I was an ass't prof at Iowa State. We brought her in to replicate her first study in the Ames Community Schools, but the local school board rejected our request. She was a very attractive, very cool woman who was a child prodigy on cello in a previous life. Look at an episode of "Desperate Housewives" on ABC Sunday evenings and notice a character named "Susan;" that's exactly what Fran looked like and acted like.

When the media dubbed her research as "The Mozart Effect," then hundreds of charlatans across the globe began marketing tons of crap and passing it off as verified by her research. This plus the fact that no other researcher EVER replicated her original results led to a controversial "debunking" of her claims. Fran spent the next few years defending research that was NOT incorrect (therefore couldn't be technically debunked), but simply was taken to a context she didn't intend.

However, I do believe in her original results. My experience with Mozart is that the music is incredibly organized and structured, and would seem to be the perfect vehicle in order to focus one's mind on a math-related task.

Phil Keaggy - Acoustic Sketches

It's an album full of acoustic guitar instrumentals. Lovely, calming stuff.

i used to use music to focus, then i realized that when i played music i focussed on it instead of what else i was trying to do.
so now it does not operate as a device in this way for me.
if i need to read, for example, i cannot have music on.

Mozart
Debussy
Autechre
Aphex Twin
Massive Attack

Agreed.

When I listen to music, I really have to listen to it.

Mozart indeed :)
I also like listening to Pachelbel's Canon when studying.

anything really. I always have music playing- alt., country, folk....

but relaxing music, I go for trance, ambient, or world music.

i tend to go more toward improvised jazz when i just need some background music to work that i'm doing...like galactic or medeski, martin and wood.

I work as an artist so when I'm drawing/painting/sculpting I listen to Dave Matthews, Sting, Travis or anything with a strong jazz influence. Sometimes mobbish (Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima etc.)

When I'm doing something a bit more cerebral I listen to Bethoven, Mozart etc.

I have three cd's (or sets) that I listen to relax, whether it be at work, or at home, or on vacation sitting in a hot tub..

Dead Can Dance 1981-1998 (the litte box set thing)
E Nomine (mixed cd of songs of theirs I've collected)
A celtic music collection cd

I cannot relax to anything I can "sing along" with hahaha I love the evil choir sound of E Nomine, and the mystical "aaaaahaaaaaa" sound of most celtic music and it calms me down.

I work on autocad, & it can get real boring, quick.
I don't think music makes your focus better, but
it does help give you the energy to help focus.
I usually have a mix of Static X, S.O.A.D, Coheed, etc...

Mozart or Bach. Their music seems to be tightly focuses around meter and structure...which helps me for some reason.

Always listening 'quitely' at work...mostly alternative or rock. Not sure it helps or henders my concentration though. Does make time go by a little faster I think.

Im on autocad all day too.....thats why I cant focus if the music has words lol I have a tendancy to sing and dance in my chair no matter what the song is makes designing kinda hard sometimes

children of the bong- sirius sounds.... in spite of the name it's one of the most undefinable awesome instrumental electronic albums you'll ever hear. great layers and long jams.

Any kind of music really, i cant concentrate with total silence.

buddy of mine has that..and to be honest I couldn't stand it :p

Beck - Sea Changes or anything Jayhawks is good music to focus too.. or for a rainy day like today in dreary cold Ohio

To me it depends on my mood and what I need to focus on. It could anywhere from Beethoven to Slayer or anything in between.

Music with no words, if i know the lyrics of the song i get distracted =P i prefer Trance, or classical

For some reason, when working on math I can listen (and even sing along) with any type of music and still concentrate on my work. This doesn't work for anything else though. If I'm not working on math, I use jazz if I ever really need to focus and the silence while studying gets to me.

The Donnie Darko score is, though creepy, amazing and really throws me into "the zone."

lyrics kind of distract me to when i'm concentrating

i second the post-rock recommendation, though

I agree; I bet if someone somehow could come up with some way to mathematically express "perfect music", a lot of Bach's stuff would fit it to a tee :)

I've noticed that in movies and books (and sometimes real life), that geniuses often listen to Bach while they do their work.

I don't know about music helping me focus... but music often weaves itself into the tapestry of my activity and becomes part of it.

When I'm playing in a scene, for example.... if I'm bottoming, I prefer hard, dark, heavy music, gothic/industrial sounds. If I'm topping, I like punk or techno.

If I'm reading, I like something soulful, the female divas, Billy Holiday, Lena Horne, etc.

When I'm cleaning, I like salsa or ethnic music, sometimes bluegrass.

You get the point, lol.

classical usually works for me....i really love violin, piano and classical guitar...very soothing and usually motivates me to work even if i'm procrastinating badly :P

Any Linkin Park song or really any good rock song help my focus!

anything without lots of lyrics. my personal favorite (and one I've used tens of times) is the Tranceport album by Paul Oakenfold. I've recommended it to a lot of people, and it seems to work. I can study, churn out a paper, focus on ideas, anything with it. It's great.