Music to write by?

[Diannecp]

What kind of music, if any, do you like to listen to when writing? It's smooth Jazz for me when I'm writing . . . puts me in a pensive, melancholy mood! I also like the LOTR soundtracks and some Enya. I like all kinds of music but some of it's too distracting to write or work to.

How 'bout you guys?

[wgjones3]

Depends on what mood I'm in. Right now, ZOEgirl's new album, Room to Breathe is getting frequent rotation in my mp3 player. It's kind of a light pop album.

Typically, I've got something by Three Doors Down going. Away From the Sun is one of my favorite albums of all time, and Seventeen Days is just as good. I probably wrote 75% of my last novel while listening to Away From the Sun or ZOEgirl's previous CD, Different Kind of FREE.

I also have a lot of freestyle jazz I've downloaded off the net, and the John Debny Passion of the Christ soundtrack has gotten a lot of play on my PC too.

Oldies rock from the '50s and '60s, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, stuff like that... plus Winamp Radio has some cool stations as well. Christianrock.net and TVUlive.com have good music streams.

As for classical, I've got Gustav Mahler's first symphany, Vivaldi, Handel, Bach, Beethoven... no Motzart, though. Wierd.

[rodojeki]

I love all music except the heavy metal stuff....I enjoy Chopin, Mozart and Beethoven, but also love bluegrass, the blues, jazz, big band, lots of the oldies of the 60 and 70...Credence, Janis Joplin one of my all time favorites, she was soooooo raspy.... Jim Croche, The Stones, The Eagles: there are way too many to list, but I also love country.....not all of the newer stuff...but Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw....and the oldies....of country.... mostly I love to listen to and sing gospel.....and I must confess I play my music LOUD....it has to crank out.....My husband tells me I am worse than the kids!!! Writing, intense as it can be, demands much of me, so normally I throw in something classical or nothing at all. I prefer silence when I am actually writing...I write late at night when my house is quiet...

Donna

[dublinheart]

I usually write to a Margaret Becker song: "Clay and Water" or "Deliver Me From Me." I love her songs, because I think "she's a poet and don't know it." Her verses send me to the heights of writing.
Sometimes, if it's a heavy poem or story, I'll listen to Steppenwolf> That's left over from the biker days.
I love lots of types of music; classical (any with violin), used to like country til it began to depress me; love some jazz, Really get into the blues of B.B. King, John J. Hooker, etc.
Like Donna, I write late (kids) so usually I write with the harps of Heaven playing in my soul.
To me, any good lyrics is much like poetry, so it feeds me.

[DrRita]

When writing I either don't play any music at all or I play movie soundtracks, LOTR, Pirates of the Carribean, Master and Commander, and so on. http://pages.prodigy.net/indianahawkeye/newpage23/8.gif I can't listen to lyrics and write or else it affects the writing. When just doing other things I like MW Smith, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Aretha, Gospel, Keith Green and about anything else that happens to hit mehttp://pages.prodigy.net/bestsmileys1/emoticons1/BANJO.GIF from jazz to CW to rock to classical, musicals and so on. I just like musichttp://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/band.gif. As a former dancer I learned to like everything. For instruments I love the stings,http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/nopityA.gif especially guitarhttp://pages.prodigy.net/indianahawkeye/newpage19/16.gif and wood winds.

Sometimes I make my own. http://pages.prodigy.net/bestsmileys1/emoticons3/peopleguitar6.gif

[writegirl1949]

I love music ... it's been a comfort for more years than I care to remember. :rolleyes:

Some of the time, I listen to music to remind me of certain emotions or certain time periods I'm trying to capture in what I'm writing. For example, the main character in my book spent her late teens in the late 80s ... and that's her comfort music. So, I use some of the music as a way to better characterize her.

Then, if I'm working on something descriptive, I may listen to Rich Mullins ... his lyrics are so visual for me and I get inspired by how he wrote songs like, "The Howling," and "Calling out Your Name," and "Sometimes by Step." These songs are full of landscape and imagery and really touch a place deep within me.

Then there's the oldies ... Moody Blues, ELO, Eagles, Phil Collins, Neil Diamond :eek: (did I say that?) :confused:

But most of the time, the quiet is most conducive for my writing. :cool:

Blessings, Francine

[seyi]

Anything Steven Curtis Chapman, baby!!!

Phil Collins is good, but he makes me cry, lol. That man has TALENT.

I listen to pretty much anything...depends on my mood. Sometimes Stacie Orrico, sometimes Relient K, sometimes Point of Grace, sometimes Grits, sometimes the Newsboys (but they make me cry, too.) Depends on what kind of a story i'm writing. Sometimes, I put my laptop down and start a private jam session (scaring others in my house) and then I have to turn it off. :)

[ellenjames]

Many kinds of music can be distracting while trying to write. I like instrumental music --
"Inspiration (?) Strings". Orchestra music, vocal quartets, and great sweeping organ music of Bach are among my favorites.
Mostly I write without music.

Ellenjames

[Gumpngreen]

www.christianrock.net

*head bangs*

I also like to listen to movie soundtracks, and I very much enjoy Joe Satriani, especially "Surfing with the Alien", and his music is mostly instrumental. For a streaming sample:

http://albums.allofmp3.com/m3ulist.m3u?group=1163&album=5

[firstacts]

George Grant introduced me to the idea of a sountrack to your writing. So each project winds up being different. My second book was written to Cademon's Call - my third to Third Day - right now it's Selah.

One of my favorite writer's is Stephen Lawhead and many of his books have a soundtrack written for them. It's amazing to read the book while listening to the music written for it - incredible both in concept and sound. More books should have their own soundtrack.

Glenn !thumbsup!

[ellenjames]

First Acts,

Your comments are intriguing. Are you saying that listening to music inspires your writing and puts you in a creative mood??

Ellenjames

[firstacts]

When I am writing a book I will find one music project (almost said album :p ) that will be the music I listen to throughout the entire process of writing the book. It may be that it triggers something in my mind that connects me to what I am writing, it may be that it has some musical connection to the setting or character, but I do try to land on one project that (for me) becomes the sountrack to a book.

Maybe it's not so much to help me become more creative as it is a mechanism that shifts an invisible gear in my brain that get's me moving.

Does that help answer your question?

Glenn !thumbsup!

[ellenjames]

Yep, that answers my question.

Thanks, First Acts.

Ellenjames

[Joanna L.]

Silence is good, but if I must listen to music when writing Christian material, I prefer Classic CCM and Christian rock. Actually, music goes better with researching than typing. I literally wore out a Twila Paris "The Warrior Is a Child." I almost wore out a Leslie Phillips "Black and White in a Grey World." Early Michael W. Smith. Early Russ Taff. Early Amy Grant. Later it got so my favorites included Carolyn Arends, Jaci Velasquez and Michelle Tumes. The Internet can now supply almost any commercially recorded music you want.

[Merry]

Hey Joanna! Good music choices. Except for the CCM part (heh-heh...just messing) Tons of great Christian rock out there. Depends on what I'm writing, but I love to listen to music to sort of set the mood, everything from Tourniquet to Gilbert and Sullivan..it's all good....

[Merry]

Gump, I gotta check out that "surfing with the Alien' thing... :D

[whitehawke]

I like Jules Riding. I played some of his songs over and over while writing my first draft. He's a kiwi artist so you might not have heard of him.

[firstacts]

Right now I'm enjoying Layton Howerton and his Storyteller's Journal CD's. He recorded for Sparrow a few years ago and is independent now - but better than ever.

He calles his backup group the Whistlin' Bisquits.

It's an odd hybrid of rock/county/folk/blues with a touch of Red Stegal. (OK now no one will buy his music). Talk about an honest performer.

Storyteller's Journal (http://www.thestorytellersjournal.com/home.htm)

Enjoy,

Glenn !thumbsup! !thumbsup! (Ebert) Hascall

[RooPalmer]

:) i like Instrumental stuff, because you are not distracted by lyrics and sudden change in tones on the songs. But, i also love electronic music. Ken Davis is my favourite Australian electronic musician. its wierd music but good.
Roo

[ProfessorAlan]

Instrumentals are better the best. I have some good Wagner CDs -- "Ride of the Valkyries" is perfect for action scenes, for example, while "The Wedding March" is obvious for other types of scenes. But personally, I prefer the bombastic stuff.

Bruce Cockburn, 77s, The Choir, Worship Circus, The Call, they all work for me, too.

[kimme325]

I don't listen to a thing. Too distracting as other people have mentioned. Usually just quiet, no tv, and no sound. that way I am ready to listen to Holy Spirit speak. I get the best ideas right when I wake up in the morning and I have to hurry and write it down lest I forget because His thoughts surpasses ours and I'll miss a revelation that we humans just can't fathom or understand, praise Him! I only listen to music when I'm not writing. And Pastor Shirley Caesar usually hits the spot or the best of gospel artists. God's Blessings to all!

[dublinheart]

Whatever floats your boat! :cool:

[MamaCB]

I like to listen to Yanni, Kenny G, Celtic Sounds, and Natures Poets. I find them very soothing. If I hear words it only confuses my mind and I drift off daydreaming, I did listen to Point of Grace over and over for hours, by the time I was finished their words were well incorporated within my work :( :eek: Needless to say it is best for me not to hear anything that may tap into my senior moments :D

[wgjones3]

I just found a big band radio station on shoutcast... :D

[Merry]

Really? How does one pick that up? Also, I like your new avatar, but Tim was fan of the old one because he used to watch it and wait for the tumble weed.