# What helps you focus into music?



## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

I personally find looking at pictures/artworks related to the music while it is on, at the time I'm writing this I'm listening to Tchaikovsky and am looking at Swan Lake pictures and similar stuff.


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## Cadenza (Sep 24, 2012)

A great cigar gives me the chance to settle in and devote the time to my music. 
I am able to sit in a comfortable chair on my deck with my headphones and a smoke for at lest a long symphony or maybe two. I’m doing it now with Mahler’s Eighth. 
It is the highlight of my day. 
Any other cigar smokers?


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Total darkness in the room. Especially for the Messiaen organ works. 

Either live speakers or headphones.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

As a pro, it used to be mainly money, now its just pure passion for the subject, I have no choice in the matter and can get carried away with most things that are artfully written...no cigars though Cadenza, although its a good image (ex smoker here).


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## janxharris (May 24, 2010)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> I personally find looking at pictures/artworks related to the music while it is on, at the time I'm writing this I'm listening to Tchaikovsky and am looking at Swan Lake pictures and similar stuff.


This is exactly what I do.


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## NLAdriaan (Feb 6, 2019)

A live concert is my favorite, where it of course depends if the spark will be there. I am lucky to live nearby many great venues with world class performers, which helps a lot. Nothing beats a live concert where you get carried away, eyes closed. 

Long time ago, when living alone, it would be lights out and volume up. Now with a family and dogs, listening at home concentrated without interruption, is a rarity.


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## Guest (Jun 19, 2019)

I don't like concerts. I can't stand headphones. I don't smoke. I don't drink "booze". I don't have dogs or children to worry me. I don't like Messiaen.

I do like most other classical music. I do like my hi-fi system with floor-standing speakers. I do like reading about things on the internet whilst listening, e.g. online newspapers, music forum chatter, record reviews, Wiki for info on composers, etc. I do like to observe nature in the rear garden: birds, squirrels, the occasional deer, and more rarely badgers.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I have a modest collection of Dover and Schirmer scores of chamber music (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms) and keyboard music (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin). I often follow the scores while listening to those works. They certainly keep me focused and help me hear things that I might otherwise miss.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Cadenza said:


> A great cigar gives me the chance to settle in and devote the time to my music.
> I am able to sit in a comfortable chair on my deck with my headphones and a smoke for at lest a long symphony or maybe two. I'm doing it now with Mahler's Eighth.
> It is the highlight of my day.
> Any other cigar smokers?


I find any form of smoking obnoxious, why would anyone ruin their lungs with this?


> I can't stand headphones


Does that mean you don't listen to music at nights?


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## Guest (Jun 19, 2019)

I just wait until the house is quiet, put on my headphones, put on music, I sit quietly and try not to become distracted.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

-I listen over speakers while cooking. Usually, I can focus pretty well because the cooking itself is rote mechanical work. 
-I listen over NC headphones on the bus. I can definitely lose myself in the music this way. Looking out the window at scenery is fine, but doesn't distract me (it is of course scenery I've experienced many times before). 
-I listen over the same headphones at work. Depending on the task, I can focus.
-I also listen over headphones late at night while packing kids' lunches and reading books (typically nonfiction), usually at my kitchen counter. That level of solitude is conducive to focus. The reading can distract or not, depending on subject.


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## Guest (Jun 20, 2019)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> I find any form of smoking obnoxious, why would anyone ruin their lungs with this?
> 
> Does that mean you don't listen to music at nights?


I don't need to worry about possibly offending neighbours with noise, if that's what you mean. I don't live in a flat/apartment. It's a largish bungalow in about half-an acre with lawns all around situated at the top of end of cul-de-sac, with the rear garden backing directly onto a large wood. I'd never move from here until I get carried out in a "box", hopefully not too soon.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Partita said:


> I don't need to worry about possibly offending neighbours with noise, if that's what you mean. I don't live in a flat/apartment. It's a largish bungalow in about half-an acre with lawns all around situated at the top of end of cul-de-sac, with the rear garden backing directly onto a large wood. I'd never move from here until I get carried out in a "box", hopefully not too soon.


That would be nice, I live on a flat on the 18th floor of a building in southern Jerusalem, we have a mall at a walking distance, quite a crappy one sadly...
...Oh wait, there's a Wikipedia page about it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malha_Mall


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## Cadenza (Sep 24, 2012)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> I find any form of smoking obnoxious, why would anyone ruin their lungs with this?


I don't know either. It's not really good form to inhale cigar smoke, and most cigar smokers never do.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Cadenza said:


> I don't know either. It's not really good form to inhale cigar smoke, and most cigar smokers never do.


Cigar smoking can be unhealthy for other reasons as well. As a well-known composer found out.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

Partita said:


> I don't need to worry about possibly offending neighbours with noise, if that's what you mean. I don't live in a flat/apartment. It's a largish bungalow in about half-an acre with lawns all around situated at the top of end of cul-de-sac, with the rear garden backing directly onto a large wood. I'd never move from here until I get carried out in a "box", hopefully not too soon.


I have always chosen my residence with my music appreciation in mind. I always have been able to listen to my music at any volume at any time of day.


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## eljr (Aug 8, 2015)

KenOC said:


> Cigar smoking can be unhealthy for other reasons as well. As a well-known composer found out.


Cigars can be a problem for all sorts of reasons as a well know American president found out.


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## Guest (Jun 21, 2019)

eljr said:


> I have always chosen my residence with my music appreciation in mind. I always have been able to listen to my music at any volume at any time of day.


I seldom play music at very high volumes, or anything like as loud as you would experience at a concert. I don't find it necessary to do so to obtain all the enjoyment I look for. Although not loud, it would probably be too loud to be sure that neighbours wouldn't be disturbed by it if I lived in a flat.

In some parts of the world (e.g. places like Jerusalem where the OP lives) there probably isn't much choice as I guess a flat is the normal type of residence for most people.

When I was a student I lived in a flat, and also for a few years when I first started earning a "crust". The problem is that working in central London, the outskirts commuter belts are very expensive for housing. I managed to move up the property ladder until I could afford a nice, quiet bungalow in the countryside. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world, having seen quite a bit of it. I suppose many people would say the same about their own areas.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

What helps me focus into music? The music does. If it doesn't draw me in then I'm probably just not in the mood for it. I've never found trying to concentrate more deeply to be worthwhile. If it doesn't come then its not for now.


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## 1996D (Dec 18, 2018)

Music with good counterpoint and good conductors and performers. Average performances are torture at this point.


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

Pacing furiously and making histronic gestures; I'm sure this would work for everyone if they only gave ait a shot.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Many fond memories reading about a composer’s life and listening to his music. If feels like it’s part of me now.

What helps me focus is an addictive (Bravo Ocean) Class-A headphone amp (with an Electro-Harmonix 12AU7 valve) and lightweight (GS-1000) audiophile headphones that can be worn for hours — clear, natural sounding, beautiful, blissful, musical and warm!


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Cadenza said:


> A great cigar gives me the chance to settle in and devote the time to my music.
> I am able to sit in a comfortable chair on my deck with my headphones and a smoke for at lest a long symphony or maybe two. I'm doing it now with Mahler's Eighth.
> It is the highlight of my day.
> Any other cigar smokers?


I'm with you. A good Churchill size cigar can last through a long Bruckner or Mahler symphony.


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## brahmsgirl (Apr 4, 2019)

1. Live concerts / opera performances.
2. Walking. Everyday I walk ca. 50 minutes to work and another 50 minutes back home and I'm completely concentrated on what's on my headphones.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Walking or driving with music to accompany. I used to walk up to the top of Dovestones near Saddleworth Moor accompanied by my music from my old phone (Beethoven, Mahler or Bruckner symphonies were especially nice of course). Volume loud......shutting the world out.


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