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The Effect of Music on Concentration

JustDave

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I have noticed that if I study while listening to a song that has a heavy driving rhythm (i.e.: Metallica - For Whom The Bells Toll) I tend to concentrate better than If I were to listen to a song that has a light crisp rhythm (i.e: Rolling Stones - Honkey Tonk Women).

Might there be any MBTI basis for this?
 

The Ü™

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I tend to enjoy listening to classical music not when I'm trying to concentrate, but when I need creative stimulation. Classical music paints esoteric imagery in my head that stimulates me creatively and intellectually.
 

Night

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For some, music conjurs distinct changes in mood.

Changes in mood can produce changes in neurochemical distribution.

Neurochemical distribution can alter our ability to think analytically.
 

JustDave

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My dad recommended that I listen to classical music while I study. Unfortunately the few times that I did my mind wandered. But, I suppose a wandering mind is a creative mind, so I can definitely relate to your point.

Edit: The apparent correlation between heavy music and my ability to study seems a bit contradictory.
 

The_Liquid_Laser

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Music can help me focus, because I find prolonged quietness to be uncomfortable. It's pleasing background noise.
 

JustDave

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That's a very interesting statement. Most people I know cannot concentrate when there is background noise.
 

alcea rosea

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When I listen to music, I cannot concentrate at all. I start to listen to the music and forget what I was supposed to do. I need total silence when I try to concentrate. I don't know if that is ENFP thing of just me. :) Probably just me.
 

JustDave

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When I listen to music, I cannot concentrate at all. I start to listen to the music and forget what I was supposed to do. I need total silence when I try to concentrate. I don't know if that is ENFP thing of just me. :) Probably just me.

Or perhaps not. Since extroverts are "wired to the external world" I suppose it is possible that they can be easily distracted by the "external world".
 

Athenian200

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I usually study fairly well as long as music isn't too loud. Although rap music, which one teacher used to play in school for the kids, always slowed me down by about half... almost as if I were cringing and fighting every note because it seemed out of tune.

If I listen to a song I know, which is usually pop or rock, it can result in more concentration. Listening to the theme played in a boss battle in FF6 has this effect most strongly, but can wear me out and make me hyper-alert in a way similar to having too much caffeine at once.
 

Jae Rae

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When I listen to music, I cannot concentrate at all. I start to listen to the music and forget what I was supposed to do. I need total silence when I try to concentrate. I don't know if that is ENFP thing of just me. :) Probably just me.

No, not just you and not an ENFP thing. I have the same reaction you do. Music, especially loud music, commands my attention, can make it hard for me to read or hold a conversation.

Jae Rae
 

JustDave

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All interesting comments!

Although music helps me focus I can easily concentrate anywhere at anytime. I have always had this ability, much to the amusement of my family and friends. Forgive me if I have mentioned this before but at least once a week someone will call my name and I simply will not hear him or her. Ten years ago this used to agitate my friends and family but they have since come to understand the nature of the beast.
 

nightning

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I'm sensitive to music... probably far far too much. If I'm to study I do best in an environment with no noise. Failing that, classical music or something played softly... just enough to cover up whatever other noise around.

Yah... happy music makes me happy, sad ones makes me sad. If I'm engross in work already though... I tend not to notice the music... or that there's even music playing. (Well unless it's crazily loud.) But not while I'm just starting...
 

millerm277

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I almost always work with heavy metal playing, and I find it helps me concentrate. Music with a lot of variation in tempo/intensity is what makes my mind wander, probably because I notice the changes and begin to focus on the music instead of the work. Heavy music with a steady rhythm just becomes background noise(which is good for me), but it keeps my energy up as well.
 

JustDave

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I almost always work with heavy metal playing, and I find it helps me concentrate. Music with a lot of variation in tempo/intensity is what makes my mind wander, probably because I notice the changes and begin to focus on the music instead of the work. Heavy music with a steady rhythm just becomes background noise(which is good for me), but it keeps my energy up as well.

Yes! Steady rhythms causes me to "zone out" and thus easily focus on the subject at hand.
 

LucrativeSid

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To concentrate and focus, I simply tell myself to do it and make it happen. Nothing is more valuable than believing you can do something and then trying your best to achieve it. (Skip the excuses and time wasters.) I don't care who is an introvert and who is an extravert, we all have amazing minds that are quite capable of doing many things.

As far as music goes, well, I just love listening to music all the time anyway. If I'm weight lifting or cleaning, I might listen to louder, heavier, and faster music, and if I'm painting or writing, I might listen to quiter and slower music. I don't know if I use it to help me in the second case, I just love listening to music.

I think what really happens is that music helps you WANT to focus. For some people, intensely focused thought in extreme silence is freaky, and the music probably just helps them feel more at ease. It takes a litte bit of the pressure off of them because there's something else in their awareness that's continuous and requires no mental energy. It helps you keep track of time and feel relaxed. Maybe it even helps you from overloading by cutting your focus down to a more effective level. (You can't win a marathon by running full speed.) That's just my theory, anyway.
 

mippus

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I'm sensitive to music... probably far far too much. If I'm to study I do best in an environment with no noise. Failing that, classical music or something played softly... just enough to cover up whatever other noise around.

Yes that is how I used music to study as well, but furthermore, I always chose one track on the CD and put in on repeat. The effect was that I stopped listening but still felt the mood and still blocked out background noise.

Interesting studies have been done on the effect of classical music on concentration and creativity. This turned out to be a myth except for one Mozart piece. Anyone remembers what exactly?
 

Hexis

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Music can help me focus, because I find prolonged quietness to be uncomfortable. It's pleasing background noise.

Thats how I am, I normally dont care whats on as long as theirs something on Even if its just a T.V. inthe background the white noise helps me focus. With out it my mind tends to wander and I get very easily distracted. This was my problem in school, if we where testing or something and the room is pitch quiet ill end up day dreaming through the whole period without even doing the test.

But of course if its music I enjoy listening to, then it even better and im not only able to concentrate but enjoy doing what im doing. Even if its like studying or something, kinda weird actually.

One of my best friends who is an ISTJ will actually go out of his way to turn every noise makeing device off in the house, just randomly. Even if its music just yesterday he loved listening to. Was kinda frustrateing when we lived together lol but was still interesting. Cause if I was home by myself Id go to the computer turn it on just some random song in Itunes and listen to our whole collection at like max volume, until he came home of course cause he would turn it down or off lol.
 

The Ü™

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Leonore Thompson's wiki had an article about Ni and classical music and how it affects the Ni mind to wander off because of the external sensory stimuli. Classical music makes me think of all different sorts of scenes and notions that are unrelated to direct concrete experience. The same thing happens with any kind of instrumental music or music in which the lyrics are not directly coherent -- such as black metal and foreign music. It's almost as if the language is fused into the instrumental part creating a subjective, esoteric meaning.
 

mippus

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Leonore Thompson's wiki had an article about Ni and classical music and how it affects the Ni mind to wander off because of the external sensory stimuli. Classical music makes me think of all different sorts of scenes and notions that are unrelated to direct concrete experience. The same thing happens with any kind of instrumental music or music in which the lyrics are not directly coherent -- such as black metal and foreign music. It's almost as if the language is fused into the instrumental part creating a subjective, esoteric meaning.

Isn't that why Shopenhauer found music to be the superior artform? Quite N'ish :)
 

The Ü™

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Isn't that why Shopenhauer found music to be the superior artform? Quite N'ish :)

Perhaps. But I also have the same intellectual drift from watching movies, as well. I rarely actually pay attention to the aesthetics of the film, but I zone out mentally, where I can still concentrate on the film, but I'm also dreaming up ideas in my head. So it is concrete experience, but it's ultimately to satisfy and nurture the subjective abstractions of Ni.

(Of course, there were no movies in Schopenhauer's time.)
 
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