Best Study Music

I find that there are two categories where music often helps. The first is when you are working out, and need a something to "motivate" you to stay on that treadmill/road for a couple of more minutes. The second is usually when you are trying to study and you just need a little something to improve your concentration. Although I usually prefer silence when I'm trying to learn something, there is the occasional subway ride where having something to listen to in the place of someone showing off their "awesome" guitar playing/singing skills.

As such, I scoured the net to search for some songs other people listened to, and added some of my own favourite songs to the list. This list is by no means complete and will forever be a work in progress, so I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments below, or link to a post in your own blog! I'll be sure to read it.

Anyway, here's what I find I like to listen to:

Best study music/sounds

1. White/Pink/Brown Noise - Sometimes, what you need is not music but noise. Calm, soothing, and unrecognizable noise. I'd recommend that you either get a loop of white noise, or use a web service like SimplyNoise (you can get white noise loops here too) to listen to what most people refer to as "static".

Listening to something, but not something distracting, something you can hum along with or something that might make you think/laugh is, in my opinion, the key to good study music. If it's something that you really like to listen to, you'll probably hum along with it or sing along in your mind. If you something too fast, you might feel like dancing instead of studying. If it's too slow you might fall asleep!

2. Ambient Music - Something like DI.fm (it's a iTunes radio station... and the free version is free for all with an internet connection)is what I'd listen to if I want to listen to music but not listen to music that is going to distract me. Although DI.fm does have the occasional upbeat song, it's usually paced slow enough to make sure that I don't feel like dancing.

3. Misc Albums/Songs:

• Music for Airports (via Lifehacker) - By Brian Eno
• Lost Horizons - By Lemon Jelly (and check our some of their other works as well)
• Instrumental Music - I prefer something with drums (or the tabla) and something medium paced. Some people say that they prefer classical music like the Four Seasons from Vivaldi, or one of Beethoven's Symphonies (especially the 6th symphony Pastorale).