On Background Music and Studying:

Hey everyone, I touched on this subject when reblogging a post about creating a good study environment:

There’s a lot of controversy when it comes to having music on when studying, and as a music nerd and someone with a weirdly wired brain, (I suspect that I have ADHD. I at least have symptoms of it but as of now I’m not sure whether I’m truly ADHD or if the symptoms stem from my anxiety. I also have auditory sensory processing issues- I hear everything, and can’t really filter audio input fast enough) I was hoping to shed some clarity on the subject.

Some people will swear by studying with music- but instrumental only. Others claim that any music at all will decrease your focus. I’ve found that, from my experience, the music that helps most with studying simply depends on the circumstance.

For example, when I’m reading a textbook or trying to do a written assignment, I can’t have anything with lyrics. I also can’t have anything too “technical”, such as fast classical piano like Mozart or Bach, or even orchestral music with wildly changing dynamics. These particular elements pull my brain away from the book the same way an ongoing conversation in the room would. However, when I’m doing calculation based study, like math or engineering problems, I actually need the extra stimulation faster and louder music gives my brain. I’ve done Vector Calculus to Fall Out Boy many a night.

Here’s my advice: music you study to should be able to boost your focus without breaking it. For me, that either entails

Style:

A) music that is ambient in nature or

B) music that is familiar enough that my brain doesn’t latch onto it.

My study playlists generally consist of both: a mixture of ambient background music, generally without lyrics, but with enough “texture” to “push” my brain foreword mixed with songs with lyrics I’m familiar with to give my mind a break from the material.

Genre:

Everybody has different musical tastes, and what genre you build your study playlists from depends solely on what you like. Here are some suggestions, in no particular order

1) Classical and Orchestral: I know. The Cliché advice. But for many, it works. If you need something technical and busy for your brain to latch onto, try this.

2) 8-Bit: very technical, especially good if you like the technicality of classical music but need to change it up. 8-bit music inspires a feeling of “gotta go fast” and boosts motivation when working. 8-bit pulls a lot of themes from classical music, thus classical music lends itself well to 8-bit renditions. Like classical, however, this genre may become distracting to some.

2) Movie, TV, and modern video game scores: if you like orchestral music, but need something more suited for being background music, Movie and TV scores are literally made for that. I personally have the Stranger Things soundtrack mixed into my ambient electronic playlist, and will listen to a lot of the instrumental pieces from Tim Burton movies (Not the musical numbers, but the background music). These scores often have repeating themes that make your brain let go of focusing on the music itself, but with enough variation on those themes to keep it interesting.

3) LoFi Hip Hop: The fault with classical music and movie scores often comes in the length of the pieces. For example, Beethoven was an incredible composer, but he wrote songs that were 20 minutes long. In some cases, song length can break focus by causing one to zone out from listening to the same song for too long. Here’s where this suggestion comes in. LoFi hip hop is very trendy study music right now, but for good reason. It’s comprised of short tracks with similar musical components, including a strong rhythm, repeating musical themes, and varying textures built over those themes. What makes LoFi nice is that there is environmental noise, such as tape fuzz, birds chirping, and rain tracks intentionally incorporated into the music itself. If you have auditory processing issues or tinnitus, this aspect of LoFi can really a) take your mind off distractions as they blend into the musical background, and b) mask the ringing and buzz of tinnitus with the more pleasing static of the tracks themselves.

4) Shoegaze: Love Rock and Roll but can’t study to Metallica? This is the genre for you. Shoegaze is a guitar-based genre named for its heavy use of pedals. So many pedals that the players “are constantly gazing at their shoes”. It has a lot of elements of post punk and metal, but with the loose, relaxed feeling of LoFi. There is a lot of reverb and distortion. There are occasionally lyrics, but they are under heavy effect as well. The instrumentals are center stage in this music, and like with LoFi, the heavy effects create a pleasing background buzz that can mask less pleasing sounds. This genre has an inherently warm tone.

5) A “Gettin’ Shit Done” album: yes. If you need faster paced music with lyrics to study to, that is no problem at all. Use one of your favorite albums and make it a designated “Getting Shit Done” album. I reccomend an album over a playlist because albums have a) a set style and theme, and b) a set run time. Now, this has to be an album you can listen to over and over without getting tired of it. Music you truly love. What you’re going to do is train yourself Pavlov Style to react to this album playing with a sense of motivation. Put your album on in the background while you do chores or projects. Repeat this process until you associate the album with motivation and finishing work. Then use it to give you motivation while you study. This method helps me overcome executive dysfunction. If I need to do calculation-based study, and don’t have the motivation to do it, I put on Folie A Deux by Fall Out Boy. I’ve memorized every word and musical cue of the album, so it doesn’t distract me. It’s fast paced enough that I can rock out while I do my math homework and breeze through it without stressing out about it.

Bonus advice: if you’re a vinyl junkie like me, use the format to your advantage and combine it with the Pomodoro technique. Vinyl records can be used as a study timer, as Each side is roughly 30 min long. When a side comes to an end, take a short brain break. Get up, Stretch, address any physical needs you have (I.e. get a snack or drink or go to the bathroom) and decide whether you have enough juice to keep going. If that answer is yes, flip the record and study for another side. If you use purely digital media, phone timers will often have an option to stop playing music when the timer ends instead of the normal timer sound. Put on one of your study playlists, and set the timer to 25 minutes. When that time is up, your music will stop, and you need to take a break and assess your physical state before restarting it.





This is just my two cents! Feel free to try or ignore this advice! Happy Studies!!