Listening to music while writing

[Teskas]

Thanks for the link, Seraphim. I'm a Gorecki fan myself so I really dig this stuff.

[seraphim]

What's a goreki and does it hurt?

[Teskas]

Gorecki is an experimental composer. Polish, I think. He writes a lot of classical religious music.

[seraphim]

Ah...if so then you might like this Polish group

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xw0SVkpHzs

However if you want to hear some really interesting Christian music by western standards then you should listen to some Ethiopian Mezmur singing.

Check out the link below. You will also see the only surviving type of ancient liturgical dance insofar as it was ever developed at all (so far as I know).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3uPVJlFhM

[Teskas]

Yes, that is interesting. I don't know what they are singing, but it is an interesting composition. The Poles must be really big on experimental music.

I've seen the Ethiopian dancing and singing before. There was an Ethiopian religious community which used the same building our mission church used a couple of years back. Pretty neat.

[seraphim]

It's the beatitudes. Its in the title.

[koolteskip]

I really just like backround noise while I write, so I can listen to just about anything...usually it's country, alternative, or rock, although I LOVE the 300 soundtrack. I haven't yet gotten my hands on the Lord of the Rings one, but 300 does its job well. I also listen to the Lion King and Chicago quite a bit.

[veritasseeker90]

I usually write to soundtracks, but not always.

Here's my favorite list that I write to:

-Lord of the Rings soundtrack
-Pirates of the Carribean 3 soundtrack
-TobyMac

And those are my "usuals", but I'll listen to whatevers on the radio. TobyMac is the one I use for battle scenes. It helps me a lot.

[mongoose]

Those ones that were recommended were cool, but I only enjoyed a few of the ones they included in their my-space pages. So I did a google video search for the names of classical composers, + the word, "Rock." I found a number of videos I enjoyed of various people and bands playing classical music using rock band instrumentation. They're very cool. So I did the same thing with "Celtic Rock." I haven't found any rocked out hymns though. I'm talking almost a metal or neo-metal style. Something like Kutless or Skillet, or even 80s rock like that of Petra or Stryper, only with classical music, celtic music or hymns. The regular rock is fine, but I can always get more skillet, kutless, jeremy camp, toby mac, rebecca st. james, barlow girl, or whatever. It's the fusion of rock with these other styles that's harder to come by. I think I now have about 4 or 5 CDs worth, but I've been selective and love all of it.

[pixydust]

Some already mentioned that I have to second as awesome:

Kutless
FallingUp
Skillet (x10)
P.O.D.
Project 86
RED, RED and RED again! Their new album is perfection!

I have a songlist for each project I'm working on. My Golden songlist is here for those interested: www.shadowofthewood.com/golden-excerpt/ (if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can see the whole playlist)

Red, Linkin Park, Evenesance, Chevelle, and Breaking Benjamin top the list. Harder, darker, and driving music was important to get in the mindset to write this one.

And here's The Willow Door: www.shadowofthewood.com/the-willow-door/

Amberlin (a really cool Christian band), Placebo, Death Cab For Cutie, Muse, and RED (my fave band) were those I listened to the most to write this one. Mostly Muse and RED, but the others were speckled in there too.

I find each project kind of calls for a different tone. With my first novel I only listened to LOTR. For my second novel I listed to Switchfoot and Kutless.

I find each of my stories (even short ones) draw me into a a different world and need different soundtracks for that world. When I wrote my novella I listened to Lorenna McKennit and every time I edit (I've rewritten the darn thing from scratch three times and it's due for another) I listen to the same songs as when I wrote it (someday the darn thing will be finished). I absolutely LOVE Lorenna McKennit. She's a staple for mood music.

For me, the music makes my worlds come alive. When I come to a stall in my work I'll just sit for a while (sometimes hours) and just listen to the music and picture the scene in my head over and over until I get it to feel right. Mostly I write in my head to music and then just transfer it to the paper.

[mongoose]

Red is, indeed, IMHO, da bomb diggidy. Gotta love the fusion of orchestral strings with crunchy guitar and plenty of bass. And the vocals really aren't bad, either. Sufficient range in terms of pitch, volume and tone, from what I can hear.

[pixydust]

Have you heard their new album? It's really good. They take it a little further than the first one. You can see the video for one of the songs here: www.redmusiconline.com/ Just scroll down a little past the amazon advert.

Oh, and they do a cover for Ordinary World, my most favoritest ever Duran Duran single.

[mongoose]

It looks to me like their entire new album is included in their playlist on their myspace page, and I do like it. Now if only they'd add some celtic fiddles or pipes ontop of it all, I'd go further into debt to reward them for it. :-P

[pixydust]

I bought the bonus CD so I got three extra songs and a DVD. It wasn't much more than the regular CD.

[violan5]

WOW!!! a thread that combines my 2 fav things in the world! music and writing. i am a musician (my name is a fusion of the words violin and viola) and i play violin, viola, piano, and didjeridu. so, naturally, i like music with violins. i like fiddle music, celtic music (mongoose - check out Flatfoot 56, they do punkrock with bagpipes), and basically all things stringz. i want to learn bagpipes. i listen to all sorts of music while writing. yeah, i used listen to red. i like LOTR and Pirates music. u should check out Barrage and Bond. and check out TingeStudios.com, that's our performing group for violin.
I don't really use music for creating scenes, but as background noise. I like it when stuff is happening. I've been to some awesome places all over the world. and it would make sense that the composer for LOTR got his music from looking at SCENERY. so, sorry, getting off topic. (i think i'll go start a new thread somewhere)