Saturday, February 5, 2011

Musical Moods

     I mentioned in my last post that I wrote a novel. Well, enough words to constitute a novel, anyway. Since I'm a mom, which is a never-ending job, I had to write during down times. In my house that's usually after dinner when the kids are winding down by watching tv (don't judge). At the time, my computer was a desktop and the desk on which it was topped was in the living room. After many nights of trying to write my own story and not accidentally start typing what I heard I put my headphones on and began listening to music.
     My personal favorite artist is Kelly Clarkson (not ashamed to say I voted more times than I can count during her AI competition). The plus side of listening to her while I wrote was that her musical mood matched what I wrote--dark. The down side was that I started typing her lyrics. My brain is not equipped for multiple tasks. Don't believe me? Ask me to walk to you while I'm chewing gum. Ahem... Anywho, I found I liked contemporary piano. The many moods helped me design scenes and the most amazing thing began to happen. Certain songs began helping me shape the moods of my scenes. A consequence of this is now when I listen to my "soundtrack" I relive the scenes I wrote while listening to them.
     So here's my question(s) for you: When do you listen to music? Do you have certain play lists for certain tasks?
     Do you have any songs/artists to recommend? I tend to get stuck listening to the same thing over and again. Right now I listen to Train's Shake Up Christmas because it's so fun, but Christmas has been over for almost two months.

2 comments:

  1. Loved your 2 posts! Your still as darling and funny as ever.

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  2. I used to have to have silence when I wrote until I did Nanowrimo. I had to go to the library and found everything too distracting so I made a play list of slow songs where I either didn't know the lyrics or couldn't understand them (Robbert Pattinson). Then I found Greg Maroney. He's a piano player and I am totally in love with his music. Check out Castle of Wonders and Breathe. They're the soundtracks to my nano novel that I don't think will ever see the light of day. ;)

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