Picking Music: Homework

Do you hate homework? If you answered yes to that question, music may be able to help you. If you feel like your homework is getting monotonous and you want to break it up with a little bit of music, I think I can help.

There are a couple things to think about when you decide what you should be listening to when you have homework to do...

You dont want to be distracted by the music. This is important. You don't want to pick music that catches your attention too easily. If you like to sing along don't pick music with words that you can resist to sing. Instrumental like jazz, funk, classical, or Indian classical works really well to keep you on task.

What kind of work are you doing? If you are studying you may want something that is more subdued so you can allow yourself to think. Classical or Indian classical works well in a flash-card type of study situation. On the other hand something with a nice repetitive beat works well with paper writing. Jazz, funk, or soul will help you groove your way through a paper. I suggest typing on beat to the music, it is fun!

What music do you like? If you can't stand classical, then I would not listen to it while you study. But instead pick something that you do enjoy that has similar qualities to classical.

Overall the trick is to pick something that you like as well as something that will keep you on track. Here are some recommendations. (I provided youtube links, remember these are jumping off points, and I recommend typing them into Pandora and going from there.)

Paper - Derek Trucks Band, Papa Grows Funk, Soulive, Robert Randolph, Miles Davis

Studying - Chopin, Bach, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar

Remember these are just jumping off points! Pandora some of them and then find some artists you like from there, also add some variety, combine Chopin and Ali Akbar Khan in the same station to mix it up a little bit.