# Background music



## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Actively listening to music can be exhausting. Sometimes you just want to relax (or focus on something else) while having something play in the background. I'm curious to find out what sorts of music TC uses in the background of various other activities: studying, reading, writing, web surfing, relaxing, cooking, cleaning... whatever else you can think of.

I typically like something symphonic in the background most of the time. Something with a lot of energy when I'm doing dishes or laundry, or something with good motivic development while I'm reading a book. I prefer some lighter piano music (like Mozart's sonatas or Beethoven's _early_ sonatas) or a light concerto when I'm just trying to unwind after a long day, though.

What sort of music helps you focus when you're working on something else, such as writing, or studying, or homework?


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## TitanisWalleri (Dec 30, 2012)

I tend to lean towards more peaceful music when working. I tend to pull movements from symphonies and suites and make playlists from them. Some examples:

Meditation from Thais
Vaughn Williams Symphony 2 movement 2
I'll Love My Love from Second Suite in F
Second movement from English Folk Song Suite 
Music for 18 Musicians


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I cannot study with music on at all, because I begin to focus on the music. Same goes for any heavy duty reading. But I do like to put on background music when drawing, and for that, anything works. I seem to particularly like Mahler as background.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I used to study with my music on when in HS and in college. I was kidding myself. I could not adequately concentrate on my studies and my listening to the music at the same time was half-assed.

Sorry, but listening to classical music is a 100% endeavor for one's attention. It is not background music.

Folks who "listen" to classical music at a concert while reading the program notes would have been better off not wasting their money on the ticket.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Never play "Classical" in the background, I seem never to get anything done if I do! When there's music in the background @ Casa Petrusja, it'll be Jazz or something "popular"...

/ptr


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

hpowders said:


> Folks who "listen" to classical music at a concert while reading the program notes would have been better off not wasting their money on the ticket.


Do you believe many of those people show up to listen to the music? I doubt it.


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I am always doing something else when listening to music -- always have been -- reading, writing, doing projects. Have a really difficult time "just" listening. But am able to "hear" and comprehend music really well while doing so. A passage or an interpretation or performance that is at some level compelling in a new way will cause me to pause and pay extra attention and marvel, but part of mind is listening for that while I'm doing other things. So I listen to everything as "background" music. What doesn't work for me is music that bores, or is uninteresting -- classical Muzak so-to-speak -- fluff, a lot of Baroque stuff, etc.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I don't have any particular 'background' regimen. I leave the same discs in the player and I simply turn the volume up or down to allow my mind to wander as it may. For the most part, music isn't divided into foreground and background types*: it is your attention that shifts some things to the foreground and others to the background. One instant of attention, and the focus has completely changed!

*Yes, there are some types of music that do appear to be intentionally composed to be background, like relaxation, meditation, elevator and some 'New Age' discs. Most serious listeners (ie., music lovers) find this music to be particularly insipid, but there are some who enjoy it, so even this music can be foreground. It's all in where your attention is directed.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

> Folks who "listen" to classical music at a concert while reading the program notes would have been better off not wasting their money on the ticket.


You know, it is possible to do this and - if it is something that the person is able to do, and that's the way they want to enjoy their experience of the music, then surely that's their prerogative; why be so rude about them?


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

I guess many of us drive and listen to classical music - I rather hope that we are concentrating on the driving as well as humming along


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I've always listened to music with full concentration (except while driving). When I'm cooking up some food in the kitchen, I usually work to a news show on tv; total concentration on the news can be very depressing.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

GGluek said:


> I am always doing something else when listening to music -- always have been -- reading, writing, doing projects. Have a really difficult time "just" listening. But am able to "hear" and comprehend music really well while doing so. A passage or an interpretation or performance that is at some level compelling in a new way will cause me to pause and pay extra attention and marvel, but part of mind is listening for that while I'm doing other things. So I listen to everything as "background" music. What doesn't work for me is music that bores, or is uninteresting -- classical Muzak so-to-speak -- fluff, a lot of Baroque stuff, etc.


I too am often doing other things while listening, being mentally and physically restless and "busy" by nature. However, I choose both the music and the concurrent activity carefully so that neither interferes significantly with the other. If the music is absorbing I stop doing the other thing and listen; if the activity requires concentration, I leave the music off rather than miss parts of it. It sounds complicated but is really very easy and natural. When I was younger I more often listened with 100% attention because music was a new adventure and I had everything to learn. Now, long life experience of music helps me stay attuned to what's happening in a piece even if I'm not concentrating fully on it, and of course I can always back up the CD player and listen again to what I missed.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Bach and Vivaldi are great because their music is fun to listen to, background or active.

Though, I don't typically have music on as a "background", I'd probably play something progressive house or similar.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Bulldog said:


> I've always listened to music with full concentration (except while driving). When I'm cooking up some food in the kitchen, I usually work to a news show on tv; total concentration on the news can be very depressing.


You've never started waving your utensils around like a conductor's baton during a particularly enthralling part of a classical piece you were listening to while cooking?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Kopachris said:


> You've never started waving your utensils around like a conductor's baton during a particularly enthralling part of a classical piece you were listening to while cooking?


I never wave my utensils, but I have been known to throw them.


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## Tricky Fish (Aug 11, 2014)

I listen to a lot of music while I'm working / studying. I have 3 rules:

1. To stay focused on the task at hand (work), I need to listen to music that I know inside-out. That is, I know every note.
2. I can't listen to vocal music, even if I know it inside-out.
3. It needs to be gentle or soft music.

So for me:
Miles Davis' so what
Chopin nocturnes
Bach lute suites
Bach cello suites
Bach violin sonatas
Bach inventions


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

Those sound like good rules. Chopin's nocturnes would work for me as well, going by those rules, as well as Also Sprach Zarathustra, Tchaikovsky's 4th, 5th, and 6th symphonies (although I might be too emotionally connected to the 6th), Dvorak's 8th, and Brahms' 4th. And maybe Haydn's 60th. I used to listen to the Dvorak, the Brahms, and the Haydn all the time while reading.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Headphone Hermit said:


> I guess many of us drive and listen to classical music - I rather hope that we are concentrating on the driving as well as humming along


If I'm listening to classical music radio while I'm driving and a police car stops me for speeding, I will quickly change the station to the Policemans' Ball Music-thon station.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

John Field's Nocturnes are good for putting everyone to sleep, including the cat; or relaxing or cooking. Chopin is good. No voices or words, that will keep you awake. You gotta turn off that verbal part of your brain.

Classical guitar is good dinner music, and they seem to use it on TV a lot.

String quartets are good for conversational events or pre-dinners. This evokes "little old lady tea parties."

For guest who overstay their welcome, Xenakis.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I like non-classical background music when I'm listening to classical music. Jazz works well, and so does rock. For instance, if I want to really concentrate on Mahler's Eighth, I might put on some Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young to play in the background to sort of mute the sounds of the outside environment (crickets and dogs and horses and stuff) so I can put my full attention on the Mahler. I actually utilize three complete sound systems, because at times I want background music to my background music. I mean: Black Sabbath is great background music for Miles Davis, which is good background music for Beethoven. Hey ... all I do is listen to music (I don't study, or read, or eat dinner, or drive, or play checkers), so background music is important to me.


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