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Music for Programming();

musicforprogramming.net

4 pointsfallinditch8 comments

Sounds interesting. But why does the author think this is music for programming? In my opinion, the music is not uniform enough and there is too much going on, which distracts me. When this music is playing, I listen to it and stop programming. Bach or Steve Reich work better for me to stay in the programming flow.

Try a band called Thantifaxath - not to everyone's taste I'm sure, the music is pretty disturbing. But if you can handle the heaviness, the energy is conducive to programming. I think this is because your brain has to (more) actively filter out the heavy sounds and then the music takes on a kind of ambient quality, but at the same time the manic energy invigorates your cognitive programming activities. Give it a go and let me know how you get on!

Thanks for the hint. Just listened to their "Sacred white noise" album on youtube. The music is definitely interesting, but even less suited for me to get into a programming flow (still too much going on, and soooo nihilistic). That's music I listen to out of my interest as a musician myself, but not for programming. Maybe you know "Music for 18 Musicians" by Steve Reich (see e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oOmUi4HGt0) which transports me in an abstract world that let's me flow away and program for hours without noticing.

Yes I love that piece, such a trip - good for driving too. When I was at school and revising for exams I used to listen to a lot of classical music, mainly Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Elgar, Britten - I found that it really helped (also The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett). So maybe the ultimate focus music is a bit like classical but with added noise and hypnotic rhythmic patterns ...

Steve Reich is "minimal music", played on classical instruments. I very much appreciate all other composers/improvisers you mention, but again they would distract me too much and require my full attention, barely leaving anything left for "mental work". There is also fully algorithmically composed and played music which sometimes has a similar effect as Reich's 18 Musicians IMHO: e.g. https://djezmusic.bandcamp.com/album/idem.

Wow, yes the Idem album really does well for focus music, thanks for the tip.

Not sure if this is up your street but if you ever need to focus AND be super fast productive, here's a good compilation https://bcco.bandcamp.com/album/bccova16-curated-by-berkikz

Thanks for the link, will have a listen.

"To be fully engaged in your own creative or logical challenges, while at the same time fully on board the emotional rails of the musical ideas of another person can make for an experience not dissimilar to meditation — but rather than focussing on the simplicity of nothingness while swatting away introspective daydreams, you are engulfed in enough complexity to cause introspective daydreams to burn up on re-entry."

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