What is your favourite 'programming music'? (non-technical question)

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Hi all,
When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer? I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

Regards,
Sam Huang

 

[Rhino]

Hi all,
When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer? I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

60s/70s rock - The Who, Yes, etc. - or almost any jazz from bebop to the
present. Vocals not necessary but usually a male vocalist.

As for helping productivity, I'm not sure. Much as I enjoy music, I tend to
do most things with the music off in the past several years, maybe because
there often isn't the opportunity to listen to music in a work environment
and I've gotten used to working without it.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

....
As for helping productivity, I'm not sure. Much as I enjoy music, I tend to
do most things with the music off in the past several years, ..

Isn't that a sign that "you're getting old"? ;-)

...maybe because
there often isn't the opportunity to listen to music in a work environment
and I've gotten used to working without it.

At my last contract, MP3 players were quite common. You
would need to make sure you had eye contact with a colleague
before being confident they were aware you were speaking to them.
(No 'yelling across the divider' at that place ..which was a good
thing).

Andrew T.

 

[Andrew Thompson]

moop™ wrote:
...

When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music?

Anything I like.

That may be Jazz, Rock, Metal, Pop, Psychedelic, Bop, Swing,
Folk, BlueGrass, R&B, Blues, Trance, Dance (and not to forget)
Acid Trance... With a smattering of Classical, Country, Thrash
Metal and Punk.

I don't like yodelling, opera, or that ..odd eastern music where
"the spaces between the notes - are as important as the notes".

Faster tracks are better for churning out code, more ethereal
and slower tracks for bebugging and designing.

My home system has a playlist of >5K tracks launched
from the start-up sequence - music is my 'WallPaper'.

At the volumes I play my home system - it is lucky that
my neighbours like my taste in music.

... I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

'It depends'. If the listener is someone who is distracted
by the music or vocals - probably not. I would guess that
more programmers would prefer silence to music.

And if all this is about "getting the boss to play the radio
at work" forget it. What works for one person, at one
instant, is probably a distraction for others.

My advice. Get yourself an MP3 player and stop caring
what others are (or are not) listening to.

Andrew T.

 

[IchBin]

Hi all,
When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer? I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

Regards,
Sam Huang

Mostly classical:

- Bach, Beethoven and some Mozart piano works all played by Glenn Gould.
Example: Goldberg Variations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Gould

- Cello work by Johann Sebastian Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello
played by Yo Yo Ma. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo_Yo_Ma

- Mario Lanza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Lanza

- Generally, Baroque chamber music particularly by conductor Christopher
Hogwood. He requires that the original instruments be played.

- Harpsichord works by Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti. Example: '30
Essercizi ("Exercises")'

Some Jazz
- Keith Jarret solo piano works like his 1975 'The Köln Concert' and his
other improvised solo concerts. His works along with his trio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Jarrett

And much more...

 

[Chris Uppal]

When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer? I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

Almost anything I like, except the sorts of music where the words are the most
important thing (I tend not to like those kinds of music anyway).

But I find that I put a CD in the tray, start programming and realise after an
hour or two that I've forgotten to press "play". Or that I did press play, and
the music played out and I didn't notice...

Basically, if I'm thinking then I'm not hearing the music; if I /am/ hearing
the music then I'm not thinking. Makes it a bit pointless, really. (Same
thing happens when I'm driving)

Of course, there's also the hope that having music on will drown out, or at
least muffle, the various distracting noises around the place. That's a good
theory, and it sometimes works in practise, but in most offices, the act of
putting headphones on is taken as signal that you particularly want to be
interrupted with any or all inane questions.

Oh, and other people's music -- if I can hear it -- is not tolerable. Not even
remotely. Not even if it's music I like (which it typically isn't).

-- chris

 

[Matt Humphrey]

Hi all,
When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer? I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

You've asked for programming, but I'll answer that I can't have any music or
noise during analysis and design work, or when I'm writing papers (concept
papers, task modeling, use cases, etc). But for programming I prefer
favorite comfortable music that's not districting. For me that's Thomas
Dolby, Alphaville, Jethro Tull, various show tunes, Loreena McKennit, Laurie
Anderson and many others. I prefer relaxing music without lyrics while
debugging.

Matt Humphrey (e-mail address removed) http://www.iviz.com/

 

[Ed]

moop™ skrev:

Hi all,
When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer?

I don't listen to music as such; I listen to an 8-second mp3-loop of my
manager screeching, puce-faced, at the top voice, "WTF is taking you so
long?!?! RELEASE THE CODE!!!! RELEASE THE CODE!!!! WTF AM I PAYING YOUR
SALARY FOR?!?! RELEASE THE F%#KING CODE, YOUR WORTHLESS, DISGUSTING,
INTOLERABLE PIECE OF S@&T!!!"

I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

I find that this mp3-loop truly helps <TWITCH> my productivity. I love

Regards,
Sam Huang

..ed

 

[Jeffrey Schwab]

When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer? I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

During actual programming, stuff that doesn't steal too many brain
cycles. Depending on mood and time of day:

- Jazz or Crooners
- Billie Holiday
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Duke Ellington
- Louis Armstrong
- Bing Crosby or Dean Martin

- Hard Rock or Heavy Metal
- Helmet
- Gravity Kills
- Linkin Park
- Candlebox
- Alice in Chains

- New Age or World
- Enya, and don't give me any crap about it
- Whatever iTunes is streaming

During board bring-up, debug, and maintenance tasks like cleaning up
directory structures, things that keep my brain entertained:

- Classical
- J. S. Bach (Chris Hogwood)
- Vivaldi (Gil Shaham)
- Scarlatti (Mikhail Pletnev)
- Mozart (mostly sonatas, a la Mitsuko Uchida)

- Pop & Blues
- Beatles
- Dropkick Murphys
- Wallflowers (I reiterate: no crap about it, please)
- Muddy Waters
- BB King
- Blind Willie Johnson (just recently)

 

[Danno]

Hi all,
When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love to
hear? Is it classic music, piano, or pop music? Is it by male singer or
by female singer? I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

Regards,
Sam Huang

Nothing. Clouds my thinking.

 

[Martin Gregorie]

- Generally, Baroque chamber music particularly by conductor Christopher
Hogwood. He requires that the original instruments be played.

Hogwood and the AAM are good, if sometimes a little saccharine, but I do
like his Mozart concerti.

Have you heard Trevor Pinnock and the English Consort? Their Handel CDs
are wonderful.

- Harpsichord works by Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti. Example: '30
Essercizi ("Exercises")'

Pinnock is a good harpsichordist too, and his recordings of the
Scarlatti sonatas (playing now) and the Goldberg Variations are knockout.

 

[vahan]

Bach, Beethoven, Mozart are best when I read some documentation,
For coding I have other favours(Pink Floyd, Santana, "pupl fiction"
sound treck, Stevie Wonder )

 

[Chris Uppal]

I find that this mp3-loop truly helps <TWITCH> my productivity. I love
<TWITCH> my manager, and dream of him <TWITCH><TWITCH><releases safety>
often ...

Do the "<TWITCH>"es remind you of heavy bombers too ?

Just curious ;-)

-- chris

 

[Greg R. Broderick]

When you are programming, what kind of music or which song you love
to hear?

Presently, disc one of Joy Division's "Heart and Soul" compilation.

At various times, anything from renaissance (Tallis, Palestrina, etc.)
through baroque (Bach, Vivaldi), classical (Mozart, Beethoven) and
postmodern (Philip Glass), electronic (Kraftwerk, Steve Reich, Jarre)
and late-seventies/early-eighties postpunk and synthtrash.

Is it classic music, piano, or pop music?

All of the above at one time or another.

I think sometime hearing music would be helpful in
our productivity, right?

DeMarco and Lister (c.f. Peopleware) have some comments on music while
programming that tend to suggest otherwise. It seems that music
occupies the right brain (where creative thinking occurs), leading to
poorer programming performance.


Cheers
GRB