What's your writing music?

[vWrath]

As I listened to this for the upmpteenth time on repeat, while writing this, I found myself wondering what you guys listen to while writing.

I have my writing music (which is mainly orchestral) and programming music (mainly trance/electronica). So I was wondering, do any of you have that habit as well?

 

[lovecraft68]

I had a similar thread going a few days ago. I like death metal/heavy metal

 

[vWrath]

I had a similar thread going a few days ago. I like death metal/heavy metal

Aha! I would say that old quote about great minds thinking alike, but I think it was just my stupidity in not checking if a similar thread already exists.

I like 'epic' music, regardless of genre though.

 

[SamScribble]

Instrumental jazz – post-bop, soul, funk.

The Filthy Six’s new album More Filth is on high rotation at the moment – interspersed with Lee Morgan, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Gerry Mulligan, Grant Green, Herbie Mann, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Peter White – to name but a few.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Depends on the mood, but Dutch/French organ, 20s foxtrots, 70s rock (Pink Floyd).

 

[vWrath]

(Pink Floyd)

Damn, I have to dig out the old albums now.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Damn, I have to dig out the old albums now.

ummagumma

 

[vWrath]

ummagumma

I'm more of a brick in the wall.

 

[Hypoxia]

I write my own music. I don't listen to myself (or anyone else) sing words while I write -- too distracting. But the best writing environment is "an atmosphere as peaceful as an undiscovered tomb". Although I don't mind the deep windchimes on the porch.

 

[sr71plt]

The Sound of Silence

 

[lovecraft68]

The Sound of Silence

Simon and Garfunkle?

 

[vWrath]

I write my own music. I don't listen to myself (or anyone else) sing words while I write -- too distracting. But the best writing environment is "an atmosphere as peaceful as an undiscovered tomb". Although I don't mind the deep windchimes on the porch.

That's interesting. I'm curious as to what kind of music you compose.

Also, what about pure music (no vocals, etc)?

 

[coldwater1]

No music. I imagine most people will find this strange, but lately I've been writing with college basketball games playing on TV in the background. Then again, maybe that's why my latest story isn't going so well.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Totally depends on the setting of my piece but mainly I listen to music to get in the right frame of mind then write in silence, so I can hear the voice of tbe character.

 

[J_R_Ashunwhy]

Simon and Garfunkle?

Nah, the Disturbed cover version, obviously.


What I'm listening to depends on my mood.

 

[sr71plt]

No music. I imagine most people will find this strange, but lately I've been writing with college basketball games playing on TV in the background. Then again, maybe that's why my latest story isn't going so well.

Which gives the opening of UVa over Iowa State by 13 points. On to the Elite Eight.

If your school's men's baseball and tennis teams won the national championships in 2015, would it be greedy to take the men's basketball championships in 2016?

 

[sr71plt]

Simon and Garfunkle?

That would come in a close second to the actual silence if it were just an instrumental version. I can't write to vocals--especially vocals that I've actually covered myself in concert.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Right now - Pitch Perfect sound track with Titanium thrown in a the end.

 

[Hypoxia]

That's interesting. I'm curious as to what kind of music you compose.

Also, what about pure music (no vocals, etc)?

I write and play various styles and instruments: classical-y and jazzy and trance-y and folksy, on winds and plucked strings and old synths. I score some for wordless voices and sliding reverberation. I diddle with pentatonic scales, just (Pythagorean) intonation, microtones, odd rhythms, filtered drones, consonance and dissonance, etc.

I compose by fingering instruments and playing (and recording), sketching out ideas on paper, writing directly at a computer keyboard, and coding sound-generating software fragments. I admit to writing music faster than I read so the computer tools are very welcome.

I sometimes catch a zeitgeist. In the early 1990s I was working on choppy techniques on an AdLib Composer platform. I switched on a KPFA Morning Concert as usual, this with John Adams, then composer-in-residence at the SF Symphony, demoing rough cuts from his in-progress 1492 opera. I thought he'd been eavesdropping on me. And no, I'd not been listening to Adams. But our styles and rhythms were eerily similar.

My shoulder bag always contains 4 harmonicas of assorted temperaments and tunings, 2 ocarinas (single and double), a tinwhistle, and a digital recorder. I can't help it. Now I need a pocket 'ukelele.

 

[SamScribble]

My shoulder bag always contains 4 harmonicas of assorted temperaments ...

Damn. I think it's time I got another harmonica.

 

[Hypoxia]

Damn. I think it's time I got another harmonica.

Try a chromatic. And an echo harp.

 

[Jose_Rick]

Silence.

 

[Handley_Page]

I prefer the silence of the tomb.
When I get near the end of the session, Beethoven at full volume.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Silence! God no!

I have the TV going, don't really care what's on. I have it on for the noise factor.

Then there is the music that's playing on my computer. To sooth my troubled soul.

Now, my environment is conducive to writing.

 

[lovecraft68]

Nah, the Disturbed cover version, obviously.


What I'm listening to depends on my mood.

You know the original is one of the few songs I like the original more than any remakes. It's a moody depressing spooky song as is.

They used it in the Watchmen for the Funeral of the Comedian and his flashbacks, goosebumps.