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Music To Program By
At 9:20 PM on Nov 26, 2007, Geertjan wrote:
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Google "music to read by" and you get a list of suggestions, including books. Replace "read" with "program" and you get... nothing at all ! (Apart from a bunch of ads for music software. Unless I've missed something.) Programming is something we do almost constantly (hence the illustrative pic accompanying this article), one would think there'd be an entire genre of music especially tailored to programmers.
What made me think of this at all was Mike P's response to the Turkey Day story here on Javalobby yesterday. One thing included in his list of things to be thankful for is "Discovery of great concentration music from Ulrich Schnauss, William Orbit, and Dominatrix, while coding in Java". I've never heard of any of those, but I'm sure going to try and track them down now that I've seen them mentioned in this context. Personally, I often listen to "Baroque Around the Clock" on the Dutch Radio 4 channel. I've often found that music both calming and inspiring at the same time, just what I need while programming.
And what about you? Do you have any tips to share? Because of the apparent scarcity of tips and info in this area, the suggestions we come up with here could be the start of a whole new genre or perhaps inspiration for someone out there to put a suitable compilation together...
45 replies so far (
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Re: Music To Program By
Bad Religion, Korn, Black Sabbath, Violent Femmes, Tragically Hip, Rush... Anything with a good hard groove helps me block out the outside world and focus on the code.Re: Music To Program By
Although the very choice of music at a given moment depends upon quite a bunch of things, it usually comes down to being somewhere amidst Industrial, Ambient (the Cold Meat Records kinda stuff), EBM and its uncounted successors, and hard rock / metal in its different styles and forms. Sometimes off an old-fashioned CD player, sometimes using my MP3 collection, and sometimes using online radio stations (www.ebm-radio.de or www.digitalgunfire.com to mention two...).Re: Music To Program By
twofish - music by geeks for geeks.See http://www.myspace.com/twofishmusic for samples and http://www.twofish-music.com/ for downloads
Also like Robert Rich to code to: http://www.robertrich.com/ and Gorillaz always works quite well for me as well
Re: Music To Program By
Just thought about my last entry, I also listen to a lot of Collective Soul, Coldplay and Steely Dan / Donald Fagen. Maybe it's just music that I like that works well?No music
I'll rather have my brains fully dedicated to hacking. Besides, in an open workplace with several people around me, listening to music would demand earphones - and I never, ever use earphones of any kind. I love music too much to run even a minuscule risk of harming my audition (I plan to still enjoy everything from Beethoven's violin concerto to Janis Joplin's screams when I am eighty).Re: Music To Program By
I've tried some pretty different genres, and I've found that psytrance like Infected Mushroom, industrial like Skinny Puppy and hardcore/metalcore/death metal like Lamb of God, PALT and Chimaira works best for me.It varies a bit between the above mentioned genres depending on the mood I'm in.
I guess I kind of need the strong and fast rhythm to keep me focused on my tasks.
Re: Music To Program By
It depends on the task.When doing logic intensive work, definitely Mozart, or a driving instrumental (Elmer Bernstien's Magnificent Seven, for example). It seems that the rigidity and structure of Mozart (and I know some people will argue that Mozart is not rigid) allows me to focus my thoughts on logic problems. He builds a lattice on which other musical themes are laid. The consistency of the main melody or theme, no matter how well hidden, helps me to focus.
For less intense work, I can slip into something with light vocals - but again, it needs to have a fairly well defined beat and the focus has to be on the music. If it is music that I would be included to sing along with, it can't be used with programming.
And if it's light duty I am doing, books on CD. But here, again, it has to be "brain candy" type reading (with apologies to Steven King - he works best for me here).
Of course, there was the day I listened to Michael Bulble for eight hours straight.... not sure what was going on there.
I seem to be able to dig down into the scary stuff when accompanied by constant beat instrumentals - perhaps it helps put one in a logic-trance-like state.
Caffeine helps too.
Re: No music
Hmm, I use a headphone at very low volume for background music so I don't think my hearing is decreasing from that. When I'm into complex things, I don't listen to music.Re: No music
> I'll rather have my brains fully dedicated to> hacking.
That's how I used to feel about it, too, but I've since changed my mind.
I work from a home-office, so headphones/other people aren't a concern, and I can play whatever I like on speakers. I've found that when I'm "in the zone" I tend to have music going. I'm not really thinking about the music, but it does seem to contribute to my "zone," somehow.
As for what I listen to, it tends to be stuff like:
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Faith No More
Dream Theater
Yes
King Crimson
Dio
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Montrose
Rush
Ozzy
Yngwie Malmsteen
Manowar
Megadeth
Blue Oyster Cult
Rainbow
et cetera.
Re: No music
I'm always surprised by developers who can listen to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, et al, while programming (or, in fact, while doing anything other than nothing). I guess I kind of understand Rasmus above and his argument for "strong and fast rhythm to keep me focused on my tasks". However, for me, music isn't there to give me focus while programming. It is there to help me step back from programming, while programming , (i.e., to look at something from a more abstract plane). Something super intense, like any band containing "Death" or "Cult" in the name, would be distracting to me, rather than giving me the perspective I want from it. So... I guess it depends on the kind of task you're doing. Maybe I'm being shockingly discriminatory, but I bet there are more hacks produced by those listening to bands with "Death" and "Cult" in their names than those listening to Mozart.Re: No music
All I can say is "it depends".When there's piece and quiet around me, I like it that way and most of the times let it be. But most of the times that ain't the case. I hear cars on the nearby street (I like fresh air so I usually open the window), the telephones ring, people talk, people go up and down the room, ...
Then I turn on iTunes and listen to rock stream "Frequence Metz". When I'm fi9nally sick of hearing the same music day in day out I choose to have a break and tune into my own stuff.
- Rollins Band
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Rage Against The Machine
- Audioslave
- Nine Inch Nails
- Wolfmother
- Pearl Jam
- ...
In '91, when Nirvana released their album "Nevermind" I found out, that I could sleep perfectly well with the music turned so loud my ears were bleeding. I never achieved that listeing to mute music or TV. I don't know what that means.
Loud music helps me to get lost into my own world.
From time to time I also hear not so agressive music - but also loud. Stuff like
- Gemma Heyes
- Sarah McLachlan
- Lord of the Rings O.S.T.
- Dave Matthews Band
- ...
Re: Music To Program By
Wauw, a lot more rock type music being played than I imagined.I started way back when with Beatles, Jimmi Hendrix, a lot of 70's stuff, but none of it sticks beyond short lived periods. I like it, but I can't keep playing it. I keep feeling I should be smoking (which I don't) and be part of a good party. I'm not, I'm behind my computer, so it's not working for me.
What I keep coming back to is a lot of happy 80's music, like Depeche Mode (before David's drug escalation), Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Red Flag (the new wave one), Talk Talk, Talking Heads, and even some The Cure, U2, etc.
Depeche Mode on steroids: mixes from Dominatrix. http://youtube.com/user/dominatrix1
You can find more on http://www.dmremix.be/ which has mixes from all sorts of people. The ones from Dominatrix are the best.
Recently, I've been into Ambient. Not so much the aimless floaty rhythm-less type, but the ones with patterns. Lately, I've been particularly interested in Ulrich Schnauss' music. His website has 4 really nice tunes ( http://www.ulrich-schnauss.com/ ), and youtube has an interesting collection too, including an interview with the guy. It might take a bit to warm up to his unique sound, but once you get going you can't stop.
Then there's William Orbit, and Torch Song, which is where he started. There's Orbital, which is all over the place.
I'd love to hear some tips about other good Ambient concentration music...
Re: Music To Program By
I like Two Fish, thanks for the link. You should check out my links.Re: Music To Program By
For the uber-geek: simple programs from the "computational universe" expressed as music: http://tones.wolfram.com/I suppose you have to first read "A New Kind of Science" to appreciate it.