I can't concentrate with the TV on, or with music playing. MAYBE when doing some line editing, but NEVER when doing a first draft.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

I cannot concentrate with TV on at all. I AM able to concentrate with music, but only with very specific songs, which I will play on a loop for about 3 hours at a time. It's a lot less disrupting that way, and eventually acts as white noise to block out the other noise. Like my roommate who is incapable of doing anything silently.

If it were possible, I would write without music. But unfortunately, until there is silence within these walls, I am forced to use music to concentrate.

I should note, I only play one song at a time, and that song is then looped...which means I get to know the song VERY will.

I fire up Rhapsody streaming music and set it to a radio station or just bring up a new release cd of somebody, something I don't know the lyrics to

Yes, constantly -- but never with vocals. Since I just placed in the quarterfinals of the SW Expo contest with the first script I've ever entered in a contest, it certainly isn't hurting my work!

To both complement and give structure to my nightly writing block, when I start a new project I choose 2-3 albums to listen to throughout that project's life cycle.

These are more often than not some form of downtempo/ambient/chillout trance. As the project progresses, I'll hear the albums so many times that they blend into my background thoughts while adding a certain flavor to my mental state.

Some albums that have inspired my work, grouped per project:

Desert Dwellers (DownTemple Dub: Flames and DownTemple Dub: Waves) and e.s. posthumous (Unearthed)

Carbon Based Lifeforms (Hydroponic Garden and World of Sleepers)

Dark Soho (Light in the Dark, featuring Anoushka Shankar on sitar), Lemurians (Secret Message), Magic & Witchcraft (Misty Shades EP - www.ektoplazm.com has a bunch of awesome free psytrance EPs for dowload, including New Born, Anakoluth, Soul Kontakt and others)

Please forgive the indulgent reply -- these are artists I think everyone should hear at least once. Amazing stuff.

Almost Always.......

A combo of movie scores and Mozart.

The right music gets the mind into the alpha state which is more productive for creativity as opposed to the fully awake beta state

silence

I use to write with silence, now I find if I use a soundtrack picked specifically for the project, put headphones on, I can disappear into it and it's totally cool.

And then when it repeats, I'm not even hearing the word ... Right now I'm listening to the Crow, both the soundtrack and the album (two different things) for what I'm working on.

Seems to be a trend here. I can write to music but it must be devoid of lyrics. I find, for whatever reason, piano jazz the best... Dave Brubeck or, best of all, any of the Brad Mehldau Trio records.