I have a busy year ahead of me and I need help with focusing and getting stuff done. I find music is a great way to improve my concentration. During senior year of college I found a beastly playlist on imeem which included many piano, anime, Japanese, and instrumental pieces which was an absolute necessity for my weekly lab reports and exams. However, ever since imeem was acquired by stupid myspace, I've been unable to find my playlist.
Therefore, I'd appreciate any music recommendations you might have that are good for the work place and studying. I've been using Pandora and listening to playlists of Jon Schmidt (New Age American Classical) and Yiruma (Korean pianist). I suggest checking them out if you're in the mood for this kind of stuff.
Let me know if you have any personal recommendations that are similar to my tastes. Thanks!
Joe Hisaishi. A lot of his music is incredibly soothing, and it's not just the soundtracks he did for Miyazaki films, though those are also really good to listen to. Howl's Moving Castle, Porco Rosso, and others are all really good.
Piano Stories I, II, III, and IV all have very good nice and soothing tracks that you can listen to. Here's an example of one:
These acoustic tracks of his pieces are also incredibly nice to listen to while you're working.
There are four parts, and I would recommend finding a way to get all four onto an Ipod or your mp3 players or whatever, because they're all incredible pieces that puts you at ease.
nice relaxing piece. i could never study or concentrate while listening to music (i hum the melody in my head or i sing), so this one is on my playlist for sleeping or relaxing. but i guess this would be good for you. give the whole thing a listen through. it's not something that immediately hooks you with a catchy tune, but a whole listen through let's you feel the sadness that is the song's theme.
I listen to death metal when working, so I think what people listen to that helps them get in "the zone" is subjective. Something tells me that's not what does it for you =P
On July 20 2010 03:23 Simplistik wrote: For me absolute (or near to) silence is best. Any kind of music acts as a distraction, though random background noise, like cars, isn't so bad.
If you've never tried working without any music then you should give it a go.
This has recently been the case for me. But before I discovered this, I did listen to quite a bit of music. Here are ones that I feel are similar to the ones you've mentioned: + Show Spoiler +
Sakamoto, an amazing pianist
Random Video Game Music
Related Links should have stuff too.
I also have a list of artists with music that may interest you. I've picked out a handful of random ones that are instrumental. The artists are rather unique, so even if you don't like one, you may like another. There are plenty more if they interest you (especially if you want ones that aren't as calming, ahah) Warning: The List is fairly long, but if you have the time, I'd definitely try to go through it! If it really is too long I can pick out the ones closest to the examples you gave. + Show Spoiler +
I also agree with the Joe Hisaishi suggestion. The music from Ghibli films, as well as remixes from them are very good. Here are a few: + Show Spoiler +
EPT
