Saturday 12 April 2014

STUDY MUSIC FOR HEAVY LISTENERS

Studies claim that listening to more of instrumental and classical music helps, especially after the discovery of the 'Mozart Effect', saying listen to Mozart improves your mental performance. Well honestly, I've tried listen to Mozart and Beethoven, and I kept reducing the volume because it didn't seem so helpful after having listened to so much progressive and heavy music for months together.

Some people prefer going into that 'No, I can't listen or watch anything during exams, it's very distracting!' trip, but most of us need something. You will be in different moods, so I hope this helps keep up with your changing moods. It's my last semester, and I'm relying on this.

Few tips:
1. Don't let the music be too loud. it gets distracting. Keep it at a moderate/low volume because you're not playing the song to listen to it. It's more like music creating an ambience/background music.
2. Don't listen to heavy/extreme music, you'll either get mindfucked or tear pages and break stuff, considering no one absolutely loves studying.
3. Instrumentation is important. Beautiful note selection and sweet progressions keep you in the mood.
4. People recommend listening to waves and waterfalls and crickets. Dude, just don't. You'll land up somewhere else if you're high. Ambient music, however, helps.
5. I do not advise people to do this, but I drink when I'm studying sometimes.  It isn't a necessity. Moderate drinking, 2-3 pegs max. :P
6. If you do not care about any of the above suggestions, it's cool. Maybe you'd prefer listening to music that you've been accustomed to for a very long time.

Progressive music is a boon to this time of the year. With many lengthy songs, making a playlist is less time-consuming and there's variety. I do recommend a few instrumental bands, and a few kinda heavy bands.

These are the bands I normally listen to. There's also a list of instrumentals that I listen to below this list.

1. Porcupine Tree

This is one of my favourite bands when I'm studying, and otherwise too! Instrumentation is ace, I need not say more. I can't particularly select an album, but yeah, I could be more specific. If you want a long trip, Voyage 34 is at your service!
Albums: The Incident, Fear of a Blank Planet (whole album), In Absentia
Songs: Anesthetize and the title track (FOABP), Dark Matter (Signify),  Blackest Eyes and Drown with Me (In Absentia), Arriving Somewhere but not here and Lazarus (Deadwing), The Blind House and The Incident (The Incident).
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2. Opeth


Very enjoyable, plus there's variety.
Albums: Damnation, Watershed, Blackwater Park, Ghost Reveries
Songs: Atonement, Isolation Years and Hours of Wealth (Ghost Reveries), The whole 'Damnation' album, Folklore (Heritage), Bleak (my all-time favourite Opeth song), Harvest, Drapery Falls (Blackwater Park), the whole 'Watershed' album.
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3. Karnivool 


Karnivool is not what I regularly listen to, but when I do, it feels awesome. Make sure you don't listen to Persona though :P I've been a fan of the first two albums and I haven't got the hang of Asymmetry yet. Maybe in a few months, let's see.
Albums: Sound Awake, Themata
Songs: Cote, Lifelike, Scarabs, Shutterspeed, title track (Themata), Deadman to Change 1 and 2 (Sound Awake), We Are, Sky Machine (Asymmetry)
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4. Deftones

I can't explain how awesome I feel when listening to this band! This is more on the heavier side. I mostly listen to Deftones in breaks or before going to bed, or the first thing in the morning. It doesn't exactly calm me from any stress, but it keeps me awake and motivated :P
Albums: Around the Fur, White Pony, Self-titled album, Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan
Songs: Mostly everything. Okay fine, here are some! My Own Summer, Be Quiet and Drive, Lotion, title track (Around the Fur), Digital Bath, Knife Party, (White Pony), When girls telephone boys, Battle Axe (Deftones), CMND CTRL, Rocket Skates, Sextape (Diamond Eyes), Swerve City, Leathers, Poltergeist, Graphic Nature (Koi No Yokan)
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5. Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails sets a very different mood. I'm pumped more than anything.
Albums: Broken, Downward Spiral, The Fragile, With Teeth, (Ghosts I-IV and The Slip are secondary)
Songs: Wish, Happiness in Slavery, Gave up (Broken), Closer, The Becoming, Reptile (The Downward Spiral), The Wretched, No you don't, The Great Below (The Fragile-Left), The Hand that Feeds, Only, Right Where it Belongs (With Teeth), Came Back Haunted, Copy of A (Hesitation Marks)
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Some songs that set the mood completely:
1. Textures: Storm Warning, Awake
2. Alter Bridge: Metalingus
3. Tesseract: Concealing Fate
4. Pantera: Psycho Holiday, War Nerve
5. Despised Icon: MVP
6. Fell Silent: Erase Begin, Immerse
7. Gojira: A Sight to Behold
8. Judas Priest: Painkiller
9. Iron Maiden: Aces High
10. Lamb of God: Ruin
11. Slipknot: Vermillion II
12. Led Zeppelin: Immigrant Song

I've also been listening to Indian bands Blakc and Paradigm Shift.

You may listen to other bands like Devin Townsend, Isis, Intronaut, some even listen to Tool. If you feel like listening to Slipknot also, I feel you. The frustration gets you there sometimes. Alter Bridge and Soundgarden also work well in the study leave, but not while studying.


Here are a list of a few instrumental bands:

1. Exivious

Discography: Exivious, Liminal 
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2. Animals as Leaders


Discography: Self-titled, Weightless, The Joy of Motion
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3. Cloudkicker



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All the best! 

1 comment:

  1. My list would be- (ofcourse) 1.porcupine tree
    2.opeth
    3.animals as leaders
    4.periphery

    Love periphery-racecar. (Recommended) :)

    ReplyDelete