My musical tastes are ridiculously eclectic and there are few things I love more than discovering good new music. Thanks to Last.fm and Amazon MP3, finding new music is easy. The hard part is finding time to listen to it.
I don’t really like listening to music while programming. It fragments my concentration; I can concentrate on the code or the music, but not both at once. I like listening to music while driving, but the acoustics at highway speeds are terrible and my music selection in the car is necessarily limited. As a result, my music-listening time ends up being limited. To get my music fix, I’ll flop on the couch for an hour or so maybe once a week, crank up the sound system, and just focus on the music.
When’s your favorite time to listen to music? What’s your favorite place? Do you listen while working? Let’s see some comments.
Comments
Two types of music (at least)
You probably know this already, but I have two types of music listening: normal music (in the car, while doing housework, et c) or writing music. Writing music seldom has words, or has words in languages I don’t know. It tends towards electronica or classical. Some soundtracks are mixed in.
But I did so much writing at once this semester that I got sick of my ‘writing’ (and ‘writing quiet’) playlists. That’s why last.fm saved my graduate degree—when I needed music to help me escape the little noises of cat, house settling, traffic, et c, that distract me and bind me to the world, I could tune to “artists like” Boards of Canada and Azam Ali and listen to atmospheric tracks I hadn’t heard a thousand times before.
My habits
I usually walk to and from school, as long as the weather permits. That’s where I get most of my listening done. Takes about 45 minutes each way, which allows for some relaxing moments with just me and the music each day.
I also play it when at home, doing homework, programming or whatever, but then I don’t really focus on it. It’s just there to drown out the sound of computer fans >_>
I'm with Felicity...
My programming listening habits are essentially the same as her writing habits. I’ve been using Pandora a lot lately- I can just point it at a few favorite Bach pieces, and suddenly I have a never-ending flow of baroque harpsichords and organs.
All. The. Time.
Some time along the way (around 11 or 12 years ago, when I was in middle school) I started listening to music before I went to bed and often fell asleep with the radio on. When MP3s became the norm, I started listening to music when I was playing MUDs. Now, with the advent of of MP3 players, whether I’m at work, classes, or home, I’ve got my favorites with me.
I’m not sure how most people are, but when I can hear outside noise, I try to figure out what it is or what is being talked about. Head phones let me listen to something while drowning all that other junk out.
In a way, having music blasting directly into my ears is less distracting than no noise at all.
While commuting and working
With a two year old at home there’s really no other time. And while working is basically to drown out a noisy, distracting office. You’re right though on the concentration bit—sometimes I’ll put on a favorite album and not even realize it until it’s over. It’s easier these days to just put on a streaming station (like Somafm) than to constantly play disk jockey, when I don’t even hear much of it anyway.
Home and Car and Work
I begin listening in the car on my way to work. Upon arrival I immediately turn on Pandora.com and listen all day long. When I arrive home I either listen on the stereo or through Pandora. :)
Home > work
Much prefer to listen at home, but having some music to cancel out the din at work is wonderful.
Cello sonatas, The Black Keys, or NIN… choices, choices.
same affliction
I become the same way a few years ago; I just can’t do intense programming and focus on music at the same time. If I do manage to turn on something before sitting down I’ll completely zone it out and won’t notice a playlist ended until hours later.