Happy Friday, everybody!!
It’s time to start the weekend and I have a mellow soundtrack for you!
I cannot listen to music with lyrics while I’m working. I get distracted by the words, and it interferes with my brain’s ability to produce my own words, which I kind of need to do here and there. Blogging, after all, is was originally a text medium.
I also don’t like AI-generated instrumentals, and avoiding them is becoming a chore. I recently was sent a song by a friend, and after some digging I learned that the music and the singer were Gen-AI. THE SINGER TOO? I would have bet that it was a person, but nope. That was humbling.
So this week I want to introduce you to one of my favorite instrumental channels on YouTube: Yellow Cherry Jam. They are a couple, plus a dog, who make AI-free lo-fi instrumental music.
The best part is that the videos almost always feature the dog. Each one is about an hour, and I have a playlist that I listen to when I need my brain to settle and focus. Here’s one of my favorites: “Lo-fi music among sakura.”
I also want to mention a new discovery, which does feature lyrics but most of them aren’t in English so I can work and listen to it: please meet Bobby Ghanoush. He has his own channel, too.
What do you like to listen to when you’re working?
Friday videos hope the soundtrack to your weekend is superb, and that the vibes remain marvelous.
Like you, I can’t listen to anything with lyrics when I’m working. I generally choose jazz or something classical to have in the background while I work. With school starting up again, this is the time of year I bring work home to do at night or on the weekends. As a result, my Spotify year-end wrap-ups always feature one artist that sticks out amongst my Disco, New Wave/Alternative, and EDM favorites. One year it was Miles Davis, another year, Bach, last year, Debussy, and this year I suspect it will be Ralph Vaughan Williams.
George Winston, piano music in classical style. I heard his track “Joy” on a “Relaxing moods” compilation CD back in the early 2000s. Nowadays he has more than 20 albums available on streaming.
+1 on can’t listen to lyrics while working. Alas.
No lyrics for me either. When I have to write something for work but the words aren’t wording, I have an instrumental bluegrass station on Pandora that somehow does the trick.
It depends on what mood I need, but video game soundtracks are very frequent (a non-actiony one I highly recommend is Blue Prince, it’s smooth and very chill), and also ambient music is another frequent listen.
Me too. I can’t read or write any words if I can hear someone singing or talking in the same room.
Music with or without lyrics distracts me when I’m working, because if I know the lyrics, I hear them in my head. New age music makes me crazy because chords (chords?) never resolve. If I work late, sometimes I listen to Vivaldi or the Brandenburg concertos to pull me through to finish time. Have to be careful with the classical – don’t want to put myself to sleep but also don’t want to depress myself with deeply serious pieces.
When I’m home alone and the house feels empty, I listen to what my friend’s grandfather called “sweet evening music” turned down low. Also known as elevator music. And whoo, is it startling to hear what I originally knew as rock & roll in sweet evening music mode.
A trick that sometimes work for me is music in languages I don’t understand. (That’s even the name of one of my spotify playlists)
My brain won’t put those lyrics into the word processing part, so I can think up and write sentences. And I can still vocalize to the sounds that I’m hearing, so that covers the stimming needs.
I don’t speak the languages, but I sure will try to sing in them. 🙂
I work in a loud office and have to answer phones all day, so I don’t listen to music while I work. When I’m at home, reading or writing, I like to listen to the go-to chill playlist on Apple Music, because no lyrics for me while I’m creating, or enjoying an audiobook. @Sarah, thank you, I added Yellow Cherry Jam to my own Chill playlist.
I can listen to music w/lyrics while I’m working if it’s boring/uncreative/admin work. I especially like to put on a familiar album and listen from start to finish while working. The cue of the which song on helps me realize how long I’ve been sitting there and how long I have to go.
But if I’m writing something new/fun/creative, I do prefer music w/out lyrics. I used to love a lot of ambient music channels but I’m so unsure of what does and doesn’t have AI, I avoid it all together. 🙁 Now I just listen to movie soundtracks or this lovely gentleman who plays the oud.
https://youtu.be/XuazmIvDg8A?si=EYjF6USNtGa5RT2n&t=16
This is my one focus music video that I listen to when I really need to buckle down and get stuff done. I don’t know why this one video works for me – all others I find distracting/annoying and I’d rather listen to nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtmzPUmq7XU