Music | ADHD Information
I'm wondering how other people respond to music. I've noticed that improvisational music just agitates the heck out of me. I find myself getting really irritated and snappy if I'm listening to it. Jazz, grateful dead, etc. (my hubby loves this stuff)On the other hand, music with a very definite rhythm and structure I find extremely soothing. I play a lot of celtic stuff in the background bc it can actually help my mind to stay on track and 'organize' my moods. I dont actually adore this type of music, but I've noticed that it really helps me.
Is this really wierd or does anyone else notice this?I have an incredible fondness for Delerium. They are a Canadian, techno-electronica type group that uses a LOT of Indian, medieval, and oriental type influences in their music. They use different vocalists, usually feamle, but also use chanting, etc. They used Lisa Gerrard in one of their songs - if anyone saw the movie "Gladiator", she is the one who did the humming/chanting sounds in the soundtrack.
It's very difficult to explain - you'd have to hear it to understand.
I can listen to their stuff for HOURS and not get bored with it. Also, since it is mostly instrumental, I can do just about anything while I am listening to it. Read, cross-stitch, clean, cook, anything. It calms my inner dialogue and... I dunno... it makes me feel more calm and centered.
I like just about all types of music, but it has to be TALENTED music. I like stuff that stands out just a little, that has a certain rarity about it. I don't like the boxed or manufactured "artists" out there at all.
LOL - I got so wrapped up in typing my post I forgot to address your original statement. I know what you mean about certain music getting on your nerves. I like some jazz, but I hav eto be in the right mood. Rap drives me up the wall because it is so repetitive and, to me, not very creative at all (don't mean to offend any rap fans ).
I adore electronic and techno/house music and have done from an early age. Whereas some people tend to consider this type of music clinical and non-emotional, I completely disagree and see the beauty in this kind of music as if it were classical music. This music moves me in a way that no other can.
I also play the piano and particular enjoy playing Mozart Sonata's, which are famous for being very cleverly structured.
Also, and I would be interested to know whether anyone else finds this, I lean towards liking music that is heavily strings orientated (most often in a minor key).
Earthgirl
I love to listen to Trance, Techno. I feel the music move through me as someone stated previously. I have always loved music, it's one of the few things that can soothe me.
Ive noticed the music thing..weird thing that happened to me recently on adderall, started listening to Country music and have found a new appreciation for it.I use to listen to R&B/soul, dance music.My husband thinks I'm really losing it..lol
I really do enjoy it.
Led Zeppelin, nice 'n loud...
I have eclectic taste in music with a definite preference for classic rock. I find improvisational music very annoying. Although I can deal with instrumental music, I much prefer songs with lyrics I can sing along to...
To me, a familiar piece of music is very soothing... I find that with blues, jazz, etc. there is no way to become familiar with it. It's not the music though, because there have been some very bluesy or jazzy hits in the rock world and I love those because usually it's only one version of the song that becomes a hit and I can get to know it.
I often find I don't like cover versions of songs, and usually won't buy a bands live album if I already like the songs from their studio albums or airplay. I don't like it when they change the song, as always happens in a live setting. I do enjoy concerts, but that's often more for the whole experience rather than hearing the music.
I also use background music (but it must be music I know very well) to help me concentrate. I find if I listen to my music collection it will drown out background noise (faucet dripping, people walking or talking, etc.) without distracting me. This doesn't work with a radio station that plays a variety of music or will slip new songs into the rotation.
So I guess, to answer your origianl question, yes, I find improvisational music annoying and I guess the familiarity lets me identify with the structure and rythym in the music, which is why I like it.
I really love music with drums and a loud bass. I turn it up and feel it flowing thru me. Corny huh?Jazz annoys me when I am trying to concentrate ..it is because music can be mathematical and Jazz is not ....however old composers definitely have a mathematical rhythm to their music so this is calming to the mind. I love to listen to classical music...I found a CD from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation "A delightful recreation-The Music of Thomas Jefferson" it is a collection of Jefferson's favorite music...I love it...as well as most other classical...oh and I love chamber music.
amy
Rhythms are what make me buy my music. I pay no attention to lyrics and only a little to the melody. But the more distinct and complex the drum/rhythm layers, the more I love it!
So I lean strongly towards world music-- Koto Drums, Hossam Ramsy etc.
Music classical for soothing timesI love Enya! It's so soothing to me. All of her albums are wonderful, even though some of the words are gaelic and I can't understand them.
I love all kinds of music except for the teeny bopper pop crap.
As for jazz and improv music, sorry if I was unclear or didnt use the right terminology (I'm no musician). What I was trying to say was this: I love Dixieland jazz, for example (very definite beat and rhythm) or some of the great R& B stuff. I just dont like the kind where the artists keep playing and playing, moving into different tunes and non tunes and experiment with sound. It makes me want to scream, for whatever reason. I recognize that it is artful and creative, but it really bothers me. I really dislike that type of playing in any genre of music, even bluegrass, which I love. Maybe I just have a musical time limit on songs - ha ha
I sure do wish I liked improv style music, though- it seems like so many people get a lot of enjoyment out of either playing or listening to it and I'd love to join them.
[QUOTE=chocoholic] As for jazz and improv music, sorry if I was unclear
or didnt use the right terminology (I'm no musician). What I was trying to
say was this: I love Dixieland jazz, for example (very definite beat and
rhythm) or some of the great R& B stuff. I just dont like the kind where
the artists keep playing and playing, moving into different tunes and non
tunes and experiment with sound. It makes me want to scream, for
whatever reason. I recognize that it is artful and creative, but it really
bothers me. I really dislike that type of playing in any genre of music,
even bluegrass, which I love. Maybe I just have a musical time limit on
songs - ha ha
I sure do wish I liked improv style music, though- it seems like so many
people get a lot of enjoyment out of either playing or listening to it and
I'd love to join them.
[/QUOTE]
Hey Choco, I understand you completely. And really, even though I
appreciate totally improvised music, I can only listen to it AT TIMES, and
in small doses. Just cause it's improvised, sure don't mean it's always
good!
As I said before, I'm not big on frantic or chaotic music, or sounds.....
But improvisation need not always be that, in fact I've done numerous
improvisational gigs with a new-age/space music recording artist, and
they are anything BUT frantic & chaotic!
And just as most of us like to hear what is familiar, a good improviser can
also create spontaneously, music that "sounds familiar" as well. When that
occurs, listeners are far more likely to "come along for the ride" with us!
[QUOTE=CreativeCrazy]
Jazz annoys me when I am trying to
concentrate ..it is because music can be mathematical and Jazz is not
....
amy
[/QUOTE]CC, I had to ask you what you mean by this.
I think most jazz is COMPLETELY "mathematical", all the theory of chords
& harmony, scales & modes, etc. are ALL based on mathematical
concepts... In fact, to me, music that is too mathematically-based can
tend to be very dry & cerebral.....
What do you mean?Hmmmm.......as a longtime musician, and ADDer (altho relatively recently
diagnosed), I find all your various comments quite fascinating, and smile
at how disparate the type may be, but how universal the healing quality &
power of music really is......
A few specific comments:
1. Wanting to only listen to familiar songs, and then only as they were
originally recorded, is not uncommon at all; altho personally, while I do
love those familiar songs I love, I also love as much or more, creative
revisions of those tunes, whether by the original performer or other
artists! In fact, if I attend a concert, and see a band doing their tunes just
like on their albums, I'd be sorely disappointed with them, as that is the
antithesis, to me, of creative artistry.
2. I think you all have too narrowly defined both "improvisational" music,
and "jazz". Improvisational music can be very "inside", have a groove,
melody, and sound just like any other song, just not one that has been
played exactly that way before. And jazz, too, as rock or pop, or r & b,
has a very, very broad spectrum of "flavors" under it's heading.
I am considered a "jazz musician", and my band a "jazz band", yet in the
course of the night (like tonight), we will play tunes by everyone from Bob
Marley, Hall & Oates, BB King, Traffic, EW&F, Teddy Pendergras, Michael
Franks, & Santana, to Grover Washington, Coltrane & Miles Davis, Jobim,
Stanley Turrentine, & Pharoah Sanders!
Yet, it's all "jazz", cause we do most of them instrumentally, and
improvise freely, altho everyone can tell what we are playing, and can
move in their seats, or even get up and dance.....
3. That said, I can't stand hearing the real busy, frantic, &/or noisy kind
of jazz, and really can't concentrate on what I'm trying to do with it on...
And I too, if I'm reading or at the computer, prefer music that is
mellower, usually instrumental, but vocals are ok if it's mellow r&b or
similar. Now techno or trance, if it's that very machine-like disco-ish
stuff, drives me crazy too. But electronica/ambient music that is "trance-
like" is just fine, or if it is not as speedy/frantic. I don't do frantic well at
all, intense is cool, moving is fine, but frantic, uh uh.......
[QUOTE=Laurala]Since when does country music encourage incest and farm animal abuse?!
Ummm...an example?
[/QUOTE]
Ain't you never seen deliverance? you know them boys was both brothers and cousins.......... is that a banjo that I hear?
scary green giant:
Complete silence....Hmmm.... My mind uses complete silence the same way I use a blank peice of paper. My mind takes the opportunity to go buck wild and fill my head with all this ludacris zany nonsense!!! It is so weird how some ADDers can be so opposite, yet have the same problem....what your mind does WITH music is the same thing my mind does WITHOUT it!
And my mind does the same thing with DARKNESS also. To this very day I CANNOT go to sleep in complete darkness ESPECIALLY with complete silence. I will literally sit there, staring into nowhere while my mind paints all these ridiculous scenarios. When I was little, my mind played all this awful tricks on me in the darkness, and I thought about monsters and demons, and all sorts of terrifying things. Now I'm an adult, it just uses the time and space to think about other things/ but still not the type of things that make me want to go to sleep. I have to have a tv on somewhere to go to sleep now.
Music gives my mind something to chew on and think about and drowns out the circus going on inside my head. And now that I am pregnant and not taking meds at the time, I LIVE by my music! I would be a useless vegetable without it!!
I prefer anything off the usual beaten path
Zappa has always been a favorite of mine
As far as Goatroping music (country)....
I'd much prefer to listen to fingernails being dragged down a mile long chalk board
I cannot condone anything which encourages incest and fosters farm animal abuse
[QUOTE=sonya_h]scary green giant:
Complete silence....Hmmm.... My mind uses complete silence the same way I use a blank peice of paper. My mind takes the opportunity to go buck wild and fill my head with all this ludacris zany nonsense!!! It is so weird how some ADDers can be so opposite, yet have the same problem....what your mind does WITH music is the same thing my mind does WITHOUT it!
[/QUOTE]Yes, it's interesting how different yet alike we are. My mind can go pretty wild without music but it's MUCH worse WITH music.
This shows that ADD people are unique even amongst each other. We're not all exactly the same!
[QUOTE=MCD270] I never gave much thought into until I read this thread
but music can go both ways for me. I like rock/alternative music but if I
listen to it, it puts me in a good mood but will distract me from what I am
doing. On the other hand at work I will sometime put on the
launch.yahoo.com dance radio station. It mostly plays electronic trance
type music and I can have it playing quitly at work and don't find it
distractive. BUT if a song comes on I reconize my thought process gets
ruined.[/QUOTE]
Hey, way before I was diagnosed I, and most people, use music as a
"palette" of mind/mood altering "drugs"! Depending on my state of mind
at the moment, what task I'm doing (or not doing), energy level, etc. I'll
put certain kinds of music on. It can run a gamut from kickass rock, to
Coltrane, to Jobim, to Hall & Oates, or the Isley Bros., Marley, ambient/
new age, & even a little country. Not too much I don't like at all, if only
rarely & in small doses, but music is a very powerful "soundtrack", and it's
no wonder everyone has their own unique experience of it...... [QUOTE=sonya_h]
I definitely feel that music has a theraputic effect on me. Right now, i am not on medication cuz i'm pregnant, and when I need to concentrate to get something done, I HAVE to turn on my music.
Looking back on my adolescence years, when I was really suffering with my ADD symptoms, and no one knew and i had no medication, I realize that I used music a whole lot to get myself to concentrate. I did it subconciously at the time, I just needed to hear it, now that I know more about myself and my ADD I realize that it was my brain's way of calming itself down and drowning out racing stray thoughts enough to get stuff done.
I do better with familiar music and CD's, and not so well with new music i have never heard before though.
I thought I was the only one to use music to get myself to concentrate! I feels good knowing that other people with ADD use it too!!!!
[/QUOTE]I find it absolutely mind-boggling that music can actually HELP you concentrate. It has the complete OPPOSITE effect on me. Music makes me happy but KILLS my concentration. Every time I hear music I start daydreaming and zoning out. The daydreaming leads to wacky ideas, thoughts and stories in my head. If I could just focus and use these ideas that would be great but I can't so daydreaming is just a waste for me. I already daydream too much and the music just makes it worse. Music is pleasurable but when I need to concentrate on something it's just
another distraction. I'm jealous of you. I need COMPLETE silence when
I'm trying to concentrate because the SLIGHTEST bit of stimuli will distract me.
Scary, I am usually just like you- any audio stimulus will just completely shoot my concentration. Cant drive in a new area with the radio on, cant sleep with anything but white noise, cant read etc.
I just have this wierd kink in the brain where the celtic music actually helps me. My husband now hates celtic music bc I have it on so often. Maybe there is a type of music out there that will do this for you, as well. I only discovered that it helped me about 6 mos ago. Thought I had musicphobia before that! I've also found that I agree with most of you here. Rap is horrendous and annoying to the point where I want to kill something if forced to listen to it.
I find that I have a very eclectic taste in music, listening to Dave Matthews one minute, Korn the next, Delerium one minute, and maybe some country or A Perfect Circle after that. Of course, that's only the tip of the iceberg, as I'm sure most of you can relate.
For concentrating, when doing homework for example, I find some vocal trance to be nice (winamp is great for this) or maybe some ambient upbeat music for really challenging concentration. Of course, headphones are a must to drown out the distractions, because I swear I can hear the refrigerator kicking on all the way downstairs.
One final thing to say, that I think we can all agree with... to Hell with teeny bopper, bubblegum, boyband crap. That isn't music, just marketing and noise. Most pop (if not all) sucks too. Maybe ADDers are intellectually superior, LOL.Music quiets what is going on inside my head!
[QUOTE=Mark Goode]Led Zeppelin, nice 'n loud... [/QUOTE]
I have to have music playing in order to get anything done, work or home. It just helps me focus and limits the distractions.
And as another Led Head, it's the hard and/or heavy rock that works best. Just about anything with a distorted guitar works. 70s, NWOBHM, Grunge, etc. But Zeppelin is the best.
I'm 22 years old at the moment, and I need to listen to strong beats such as uplifting trance and housemusic every day. Music is my drug, and the only time I get overactive, is when I listen to this! It feels that all my seretonin release all at once :)
I love to dance, sober or not, to electronic music!
Any other that have the same "disease"?
fredriri38425.8079282407For me: it seems music can swing both ways especially if im on drugs.
if im not taking drugs music can help me think "linear," meaning , keep me on the same subject. i often get sidetracked. other times i just cant concentrate, but usually turning off the music doesnt help.
If taking drugs such as concerta, i can usually tune music out and focus, which takes away my hyperfocus.
i guess it goes both ways and it depends on the music. simple music doesnt help, such as country. But intricate and full music, a few types of rap, symphony, classical and techno, helps a lot. some industrial music helps too.
everyone is different
Since when does country music encourage incest and farm animal abuse?!
Ummm...an example?
I never gave much thought into until I read this thread but music can go both ways for me. I like rock/alternative music but if I listen to it, it puts me in a good mood but will distract me from what I am doing. On the other hand at work I will sometime put on the launch.yahoo.com dance radio station. It mostly plays electronic trance type music and I can have it playing quitly at work and don't find it distractive. BUT if a song comes on I reconize my thought process gets ruined.Sax, I think I know what you mean about improv that sounds familiar keeping us in our 'comfort zone'. I know I'm definitely more comfy with something that sounds familiar in a "where have I heard that before?" sorta way, than something that is so different that I cant wrap my brain around it.
Think I'll go put some 70's smooth listening on now and get comfy! Love it when I know all the words to the songs.
I definitely feel that music has a theraputic effect on me. Right now, i am not on medication cuz i'm pregnant, and when I need to concentrate to get something done, I HAVE to turn on my music.
Looking back on my adolescence years, when I was really suffering with my ADD symptoms, and no one knew and i had no medication, I realize that I used music a whole lot to get myself to concentrate. I did it subconciously at the time, I just needed to hear it, now that I know more about myself and my ADD I realize that it was my brain's way of calming itself down and drowning out racing stray thoughts enough to get stuff done.
I do better with familiar music and CD's, and not so well with new music i have never heard before though.
I thought I was the only one to use music to get myself to concentrate! I feels good knowing that other people with ADD use it too!!!!