I tried it, and found I seem to just tune out the music. I'd go for thirty minutes or more without realizing any music was even on. I tried turning up the volume, but that became distracting.

Maybe my 'smooth jazz' selections are just too mellow to make an impression.

I do find it useful to play guitar when I need a 'sanity break'. I have an acoustic guitar next to my desk, and I often grab that and play for a few minutes when the words stop coming and/or my vision blurs.

It's generally a nice film, excepting the last 20 mins which suddenly switches to a very different and very poor script.

But the soundtrack is excellent - a great mix of soft haunting melodies and dramatic choirs. Somehow seems to match the mood I'm trying to convey, and can help inspire me.

It's about hearing the pathos in a piece of music that matches that in the writing, and thus enforces and carries it.

I listen to David Arkenstone a lot, and David & Steve Gordon (Native American Music)--- I also listen to the sound track from Mortal Combat---depends on what I am writing.

How loud? Depends. I use headphones when others are home, and I listen loud enough to drown out everything and everyone else.

What's the most distracting sound that can prevent me from writing? A video or computer game where the characters make these awful agh agh agh sounds when they get shot or whatever. Drives me to want to slap the game player, shake them, and smash their computer. And I would have to have the sound up so loud to drown it out in the headphones that I would walk away deaf. I cannot write when that is going on.

Shawn

When I do, it’s an instrumental soundtrack from a movie. Something that fits with the mood I’m trying to capture or the setting and no words. After it’s been on a while, I usually tune it out. Sometimes it sneaks back in at inopportune times, which is why it’s usually off.

I'm more visual, so a desk with a view is more of a mood inspirer for me. My study (read extra bedroom) has higher windows, unfortunately, so I can't see too much. If I leave the door open, though, I have a clear line of vision out the front door which has a nice view, including my hummingbird feeder.

Different parts of the brain will deal with different elements of the music. You'll be requiring the language areas to be providing output only - receiving input concurrently simply confuses the creative process.

I don't remember neurology too well, but the inspiring emotional content of a piece will probably be stimulating the hypothalamus - whereas words in a song will be distracting the language centres [Wernickes or Broccas area - I always mix those up, though they're on opposing hemispheres].

In which case it would always probably be advised to avoid spoken word pieces, unless you are able to ignore that part of the content and render it unprocessed as anything other than emotion content.

Another little thing I sometimes do - whenever I go to the cinema, while sat down before the presentation, I will try to imagine watching a film trailer of my work - look at the screen, feel the size, start imaginary lights. Works best with eyes slightly closed, to move between both realities. Do the same sometimes with downloaded quicktime movie trailers - play them but block them out mentally and watch my own instead.

It is easier, though simply to listen to a punchy track and visiualise with eyes closed or roomk darkened.

And now...wow...got my LoTR soundtrack back from a friend. A very powerful soundtrack indeed.

I'm just going off to close my eyes and watch those amazing scene snippets roll by...!

That, and his music is the most beautiful, too.

www.bachfaq.org

(On the topic of words or no words: they're fine when they're in latin, I've found.)

But once I have the story, I can't write with music on. It WAY distracts me.

Just me tho.