Post your study music recommendations here.

[eyesroll]

I finally got an iPod and gave it a test drive (with music randomly dumped from my laptop) at a coffee shop last night. Have you ever tried to study contracts when there is a very loud woman in the coffee shop who thinks her toddler can't hear her if she doesn't shout in the third person ("WHERE'S AUTUMN!?! WHERE'S AUTUMN?!? THERE SHE IS!!! WOULD AUTUMN LIKE SOME JUICE?!?! DID AUTUMN MAKE A BOOM-BOOM?!?!") in addition to the clang clang clang of the food-and-beverage equipment.

Anyhow.

I discovered a few things:
1. Most music does diddly squat to block out Loud Mommy.
2. The music that does a better job of blocking out Loud Mommy also blocks out my concentration.
3. Once Loud Mommy left, Tom Waits' "Early Years" was study-able. Tom Waits' "Real Gone" was not. Nick Cave was not studyable at all; neither was anything by the Stooges. Coltraine was workable. I am seeing a pattern here -- subdued music and instrumentals good; loud stuff (and stuff where I knew the words too well) bad.

I'm not planning to study in coffee shops very often, but I suppose it'll happen on occasion.

So...what would you recommend?

[taterguy]

1. Crooked Fingers: Dignity and Shame

[jpgray]

2. Can: Future Days

Awesome study music.

[grannylib]

3. My favorite study music was either classical or Andreas Vollenwieder

I can't concentrate well listening to stuff with lyrics.
I really liked "Down to the Moon" and "Caverna Magica" for studying.

[kwolf68]

4. I often study to

"One Quiet Night" by Pat Metheney, a jazz guitar player. On this album he uses a single baritone guitar. Outside of that Id suggest New Chautauqua by Metheney as well.

[anarch]

5. Berklee College of Music

Hey, if you're gonna study music, you should do it right.

[ChoralScholar]

6. Hemi-Sync Concentration CD

It sounds like static at first. However, the sound going into your left ear differs from the sound going into your right ear by a specific frequency. This specific frequency differential supposedly causes alertness. The theory of hemi-sync is that certain frequencies cause your brain to react in a certain way.

I actually used this for my last thesis, and by gosh, I concentrated quite a bit better. Perhaps it was placebo, perhaps not.

http://www.toolsforwellness.com/mt304cd.html

[Burma Jones]

7. Minimalist.........

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002SRY/sr=1-1/qid=1155328775/ref=sr_1_1/104-7879630-3715133?ie=UTF8&s=music

[mainegreen]

8. Seefeel: polyfusia.

Amazing brit electro-indi ambient.

[ghostsofgiants]

9. Instrumental downtempo music I find to be the best study music...

DJ Shadow's "Entdroducing"
Mr. Dibbs' "Primitive Tracks"
El-P and the Blue Series Continuum - "High Water Mark"
De Facto - "Megaton Shotblast"

Those are my usual study albums.

[querelle]

10. When I Was In University.......

I found that the best music to study by was classical. Bach in particular, and maybe some Lizst or Brahms (violin concero was nice). Ironically, at times I also liked to listen to techno / electronica / trance. The electronic stuff was kind of mindless and didn't distract me much.

Q

[Broken_Hero]

11. my favorite study music is

music soundtracks...like..

1. Dances with Wolves

2. LOTR

3. Last of the Mohicans

4. Braveheart

5. Gladiator

Also some classic music...:)

[Magrittes Pipe]

12. Rufus Wainright's cover of the Leonard Cohen classic "Hallelujah."

:thumbsup:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. Bach Brandenburg Concerti

His Orchestral Suites are also good for keeping you mentally stimulated without being wired.

[tjwmason]

14. Bach organ works.

That's what I always play when I need to focus.