Heightened Creativity through… Jazz?

Music is great for working. I bounce between 80s and techno/electronica. The 80s because it usually generates a feeling of happy bounciness. Although, since I’ve heard it so much, the words don’t tend to disturb me. Techno because the songs seem to last forever and you can get into a really good flow with a thumpa thumpa beat. I try to find techno that doesn’t have much in the way of vocals to distract me. I used to use classical for the non-vocal reason, but unless you pick your playlist carefully, your rhythm can be off, i.e., big brassy sounds, then quiet violins. I’m a big fan of Bach and Vivaldi though, they work well.

I’ve got a broad interest in music, but there’s only one type of music acceptable when I’m working: trance! The less vocals the better, trance is uplifting and gives me energy to work better, faster and more focused. In some cases I would tune my XstreamRadio on my laptop to a station with dance-ish music only, but usually I just keep WinAmp cycling through my vast collection of trance mp3s

I find I do ‘word’ work best to classical music. It’s not something I listen to any other time, but when I need to concentrate on some serious studying or writing, it’s the thing that works best for me. Next best is dub reggae, which I do love anyway. I think the main thing is, no words! Words are distracting when I’m trying to do word-work myself. When I’m doing ‘physical’ work, I stick on my favourite songs, these tend to be very word-heavy, and I have a good sing along. An in-between, for chugging along kind of work not requiring serious concentration, is north African music (which I learnt to love from belly dance classes). I don’t speak Arabic and my French is rubbish so the words just wash over me and don’t engage the words part of my brain.