Music to My Fingers
Aug 1st 2008
Sabrina JeffriesOn Writing!
Through the years, I’ve come to realize that people are either music people … or not. My critique partner has a few record albums (yes, records!) that she listens to occasionally. Whereas I have about 600 CDs (at least), and an Ipod full of music I downloaded from I-tunes. I listen to everything from Peter, Paul and Mary to Evanescence, Tori Amos to James Taylor, Beethoven to David Arkenstone, plus tons and tons of Celtic music.
By the way, my current favorite subgenre is Celtic fusion. It’s Celtic music married to electronica or rock or some other subgenre. It’s what I write to, believe it or not–groups like Bad Haggis, Peatbog Faeries, and Old Blind Dogs. That and New Age. All instrumental. For some reason, I can’t write to classical although I love classical music. I need something more static, and Celtic is not only somewhat static (no huge rises and falls in volume), but it “feels” old. So even though I’ve only written one Celtic book in this series, I listened to Celtic for most of the others I wrote. I have to write to music–it drives out the noise in my head, leaving only the book–but I can’t EDIT to music. How weird is that?
So, are you a music person? Do you only have a few Best of albums or do you have a collection spanning centuries? Do you tend to stick to one subgenre (rock and roll or classical or folk) or do you range wildly? And if you’re a writer, do you or can you write to music?
35 Comments »
35 Responses to “Music to My Fingers”
Michelle B on 01 Aug 2008 at 6:06 am #
Great Blog, Sabrina! I’m definitely a music person who went to college on a music scholarship (changed my major, but it did help pay the tuition). I played saxophone, piano, and flute. Have directed children’s choirs. My husband and I have too many CD’s to count and in every subgenre you mentioned plus Jazz, Country, Big Band, Swing, Christian Rock and more. We have a stack of records and even a bunch of 45’s. In college I got to record an album with our Jazz Lab Band, great memory! I tend to stick with a subgenre for a while and then switch. I’m on a country kick right now. The only one I can’t get into is Rap. As I tell my kids, it’s just not music.
I love that you write to music. I couldn’t even study to music or I would find myself stopping to listen, humming along, dancing ect. Now I love to bake, clean and drive to music.
PJ on 01 Aug 2008 at 6:42 am #
I’m a music person and always have been. In high school and college I just couldn’t study without background music. Nowadays, I almost always have music playing. I listen to just about everything except rap and hard rock. I clean house to 50’s/60’s rock and roll. I love country, celtic, jazz, R&B, pop, new age, easy listening. Shoot, I just love music. I have a whole closet filled with vinyl albums, over 200 45’s, 200+ CD’s and have finally joined the ipod generation. Anne Gracie just turned me on to a new favorite singer she used for The Stolen Princess’s theme song. Her name is Katie Melua.
The Stolen Princess theme:
http://www.last.fm/music/Katie+Melua/_/Halfway+Up+the+Hindu+Kush
Here’s the theme song, also by Melua, for her current WIP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DCacIEbAlM
LisaK on 01 Aug 2008 at 7:07 am #
I hate it when people ask me: “So, which music do you like best?”. I also hate the same question with “musician” instead of “music”. I hate these questions because I can’t answer them. I like Duffy and The Dubliners, Billy Tallent and Enya, Bill Haley and Christina Aguilera, to name only a few who don’t fit together. But although I think I’ve got enough and widespread basic knowledge of music I’m nothing compared with my best friend’s father who seems to have the whole history of earth’s musical life system-resident (the system being his memory). I can only stare at him in awe when he starts recitating.
I CAN write to music but I don’t WANT to write to music. Or do anything else to music. That is because I’m no multitasking person. Yep. Right. I finally admitted it. I can’t do two things at the same time. I mean, I CAN do them but then the second one (in this case the music) is totally blinded out by my brain.
And, just for your info: Yes, I AM a woman!
dbrown3400 on 01 Aug 2008 at 7:50 am #
Sabrina, although my collection is not as eclectic as yours, I do own about half the number of CDs. I stopped buying so many when I started downloading from Napster. The monthly fee is well worth the many albums available and I can transfer songs into iTunes for my iPod. I like about anything excluding hip-hop and rap, although there are a couple songs in each I’ll listen to and enjoy–Coolio’s Gangster’s Lullaby comes to mind. I’ll make collections by voice–baritones, performer–e.g.,Michael Crawford, or genre.
I’ll listen to music all day long on cable also, regardless of what I’m doing, reading, writing, doing stuff around my apartment. I’m listening primarily to country now, although my cable company gives me access to about forty stations offering everything I could want (although I haven’t checked for Celtic fusion. *g*)
I have about 100 vinyls in my storage area but nothing to play them on. Occasionally, I’ll check to see which ones they are.
Kathy/Cookie on 01 Aug 2008 at 8:26 am #
I am a music person!
very eclectic tastes.
I’m looking at my cd shelves and I have a huge range-
all american rejects, chopin, harry connick jr, dixie chicks, gershwin, gypsy kings, janet jackson, robbie williams, snow patrol, many many broadway and movie soundtracks, shania twain…to name a small few.
excuse the lack of caps, it is too hard to do one hnaded. I get dizzy following my right hand around the keyboard!lol
the radio is on top 40 wherever I go and I’m singing along to whatever comes on.
Kari on 01 Aug 2008 at 8:37 am #
I LOVE music!! My likes range from country (at the top) to 80’s to70’s, adult contemp., and so much inbetween.
I love a mix of everything with a few exceptions. I think I have seen more concerts that I have bought CD’s. I love the feel of live music. Not to mention the eye candy on the stage (women singers excluded, :P.)
Sometimes, when I read I turn on “earthy” music from XM on the satellite. The background noise keeps it from being too quite.
Happy Friday everyone!!!!
PJ on 01 Aug 2008 at 8:49 am #
Kathy, how are you feeling today?
Nicole Jordan on 01 Aug 2008 at 8:50 am #
I think I must not be a music person by your definition, Sabrina! I love to listen to the radio when I’m driving, or CD’s when I’m doing stuff like cooking or cleaning house or paying bills, or at a party. But I have to have total peace and quiet when I’m writing or editing or plotting.
And I have several Favorites cassettes that I made up years ago, but cassettes are going to be obsolete in a few years. I just read that Books on Tape are discontinuing cassettes.
I would really love to burn a few CD’s with my fave songs over the past few years, but I haven’t had the time. And just last week my dh and I discussed getting an IPOD that lets you plug and play into your stereo receiver so we can hear it in the living room. I don’t like wearing ear plugs or headsets, but I would love to be able to listen to my faves without having to put up with songs I don’t like.
That’s why I could never listen to the radio at home — the comercials would drive me nuts! In a car, I have 12 buttons I can push to zap commericals ,*G*. That’s also why I would love to be able to select only certain songs to put in a collection. Even my fave artists have songs that I don’t like and that will keep me from buying their CD’s.
cail on 01 Aug 2008 at 8:51 am #
Happy Friday indeed Kari!! Today the dearest and I begin moving Big Stuff into the new house. I’ve already brought the majority of the boxes to it, but now it is OURS!
We are totally going to have a hooked up stereo there, since we’re both music people. My personal favorites are Showtunes, Folk and Celtic music, mostly in either Irish or Scottish Gaelic. But I’m also a fan of old school rock and roll 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s rock, indie rock, and if the mood strikes me, some emo. Some of my folk music is country folk- usually artists I’ve seen live. I really love folk. I grew up going to Folk festivals with my parents and carried on that tradition as I got older. I even have Metallica and a few other Hard Rock/Metal bands on my iPod. And also, pop.
I’d say some of my fav artists are Dar Williams (Folk), Schooner Fare (Folk, mostly Seafaring songs), David Bowie, Karan Casey (Irish), Beatles… i could go on forever.
Sabrina Jeffries on 01 Aug 2008 at 9:02 am #
Donna, I actually bought most of my CDs before I got my Ipod. Even so, there’s certain things I want on CD. I don’t have an Ipod hook-up in my car, so if it’s something I might be more liable to listen to in my car, then I buy it on CD.
Sabrina Jeffries on 01 Aug 2008 at 9:06 am #
LisaK, I understand completely about the music being blinded out by your brain. It really is for me, too–it’s just that it provides a sort of background or soundtrack music for the writing that helps me get more in the zone. But am I actually LISTENING to the music? Not really. Not while I’m writing. It’s sort of like white noise in a way. Because if I have complete silence, my mind seems to leave the writing and go to thinking about what I’m cooking for dinner or what I have to get in the mail or a letter someone sent me. But with the music, it kind of gears me up for the writing. If that makes any sense.
Sabrina Jeffries on 01 Aug 2008 at 9:09 am #
Cail, I LOVE Karan Casey! And congrats on moving into the new house! You’re going to love that, I know.
And if any of y’all have suggestions for Celtic fusion groups, let me know. I love that music!
elsiehogarth on 01 Aug 2008 at 9:13 am #
I love music and grew up in a family of dancers and music lovers. My taste has a very large span since so many family members introduced me to the world of music. I guess it would all depend on what mood I am in to what I will listen to at that moment.
I adore old school JAZZ: Billie Holiday, Etta James, Nina Simone etc..60’s Brazilian Boosa Nova is a weakness of mine, I love Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Doris Day, Nat King Cole etc. Disco, Punk: being an ex-Goth Club Kid, Heavy Metal-Metallica is my dream band., love guitar players:Lenny Kravitz, Mark Antoine, George Benson Ottmar Liebert, Gipsy Kings, Sax players: Stan Getz, Mindy Abair, Dave Koz etc. Bristish Bands: Pet Shop Boys, Simply Red, Cold Play, Beatles etc.
PJ on 01 Aug 2008 at 9:20 am #
Cail, congrats on the new house and Happy Moving Day!
cail on 01 Aug 2008 at 9:25 am #
Sabrina, as part of my minor in college I took a class called Celtic Music… we had tons of Guest Artists since our teacher was well known in the music community in ireland…
Have you heard of Capercaille? Thats a Scottish band that can be really good background music. I also really like Ashley MacIssac. Which is a bit more funky than most Fiddling. I think he’s from Nova Scotia.
Send me an email if you’d like me to make you a mix CD.
SheridanLA on 01 Aug 2008 at 10:24 am #
Music junkie here… I have 9000+ songs in my library (though perhaps 500 of those are tracks from audiobooks)… then a couple stations developing on Pandora.com, a shopping cart of another 5-6 CDs I am about to download from itunes…and a host of internet radio stations I listen to (while making lists of what to buy next)
genres? all over the place..it all depends on my mood
Sabrina, you ought to listen to Afro Celt Soundsystem, they have some Celtic fusion stuff..
Kathy/Cookie on 01 Aug 2008 at 10:46 am #
PJ,
Im feeling more myself today. I took myself off the heavy drugs yesterday- was making me ooky. so I swtched to Advil. I went out yesterday too. only down to the library.
I hung out with my pal who runs the lotto booth down therev for an hr or 2. I had to wear dress though- didn’t want to get stuck in the bathroom stall not being able to pull up a pr of capris!!lol
felt weird-haven’t worn one in so long!
Kari on 01 Aug 2008 at 11:18 am #
LOL Kathy, I wouldn’t have thought of that untill I was in the stall. HAHa
Sabrina Jeffries on 01 Aug 2008 at 11:47 am #
Cail, I think I have every album Capercaille ever made! And I just discovered Ashley MacIsaac. His stuff is so fun! And yes, funky. Sheridan, I think I have some Afro Celt Soundsystem. I’ll have to check them out again.
Freshechelle on 01 Aug 2008 at 12:06 pm #
Sabrina, you’ve got to get the Belkin thingy at the Apple store to listen to your iPod through your car radio. I tried the cheap ones and the Belkin one works best. I’ve downloaded almost all of my CD library onto iTunes so it’s all at my finger tips whether I’m at home or on the road. I still prefer a CD in the car but you can’t beat the variety on an iPod
I’m all about the tunes, man thanks to my parents! My dad had a bar band that rehearsed in our living room when I was 5. He doesn’t know a football from a baseball but he and my mom had a swell LP collection. He’s a successful party DJ now and boy, can he work a room despite being in his mid 60s.
Fave tunes this week: Joe Cocker’s “She Came in the Through the Bathroom Window” download it & rock out ladies! Yaz(oo) ‘coz I went to see them in NYC recently and couldn’t believe how contemporary they sound for such an 80s band. Alison Moyet has an amazing voice.
Lisa H on 01 Aug 2008 at 12:24 pm #
Hi Ladies—no I am not a music person like some of you ladies are. I love music and listen on occasion, but with three kids running all over the place sometimes I just prefer quiet. I also cannot write to music. My mind tends to wander into the lyrics of the song and I have little videos playing in my imagination instead of the words I am trying to write!
Btw,
If anyone has a minute, please stop by Between the Lines today. I am guest blogging there and would love to blog with you. My blog is all about persevering. http://blog.lyndacoker.net/
Thank you!
Sheridan LA on 01 Aug 2008 at 12:46 pm #
Fresh.. my friends just saw Yaz perform as well… Upstairs at Eric’s was one of my first CDs I ever bought (when I finally got a CD player way back when)
Alison Moyet did some jazz type albums that are really awesome.
Never saw them live.. might have to see if they are headed to LA
Freshechelle on 01 Aug 2008 at 1:13 pm #
Yaz went to Costa Mesa right after NY and I think that was it for the us tour. Glad to know you’re a fan. AM’s latest The Turn was just released stateside. That Jazz album Voice sadly didn’t do it for me. Maybe I’ll have to try it again. It’s a treat to find another fan of hers and rare that it’s not someone I’ve known since highschool.
cail on 01 Aug 2008 at 1:15 pm #
Well, I think i know which goddess’s music collection probably looks a lot like mine Sabrina…
I was thinking about what Sheridan said about audio books combined with Sabrina’s motivational aspect of music and it made me think about it in relation to my experiences with exercise and i think this is somewhat interesting…
I used to switch between music and audio books while at the gym. I’d go faster with the music, but would stay on the machine for ages when I was hooked on the book I was listening to. I wonder if I’d go biking/walking a lot if I started listening to books on tape again. The countryside is not exactly conducive to listening to iPods unless you’re a wogger, or have an iTrip (which mine somehow went missing a year or so ago when my dad borrowed my car…)
colinfirthfan on 01 Aug 2008 at 1:42 pm #
Love listening to music. Grew up listening to The Beatles. Still like ‘em. I am mostly a Classic Rock/Metal/Hard Rock kinda girl. I don’t listen to Pantera and Megadeth. But I do listen to Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits etc..
I also like Billy Joel, Bread, Bad Company, Little River Band etc… some Sting, some Christina A. Even a couple of Brittany songs. Oh and definitely two Backstreet Boys songs.
In classical I prefer listening to Mozart, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. Not a big Beethoven fan.
Don’t listen to much instrumental.
I listen to music ALL the time at work - though if I have to really think I have to turn it off!!
I listen to the radio on streaming at work.
evlqn on 01 Aug 2008 at 1:43 pm #
Sabrina great blog! I love music of all kinds with the possible exception of heavy metal and rap. Some of it I don’t mind but most I don’t care for.
I love musicals, country, easy listening, jazz, blues,Native American, Celtic, new age, classical. I listen to music all the time at home. If I am driving alone I probably won’t have the radio on unless I am driving a long distance.
If the grandsons are in the car we listen to whatever the 10 year old can slip past my assaulted ears.
Sheridan LA on 01 Aug 2008 at 1:50 pm #
Fresh.. looks like I missed them then.. and Costa Mesa is not THAT far… poo. Gotta love the 80’s stuff. Did you ever hear that rumor that AM used to be a man and had a sex change (hence her somewhat androgynous voice?) wacky things.
Cail… if you want to listen to the ipod while riding.. only put the right earbud in.. then your left is open to hearing traffic, etc.. and you have your tunes in the right ear.. keep the volume low and you should be pretty good.
on training walks, i sometimes listen to the audiobooks.. but I want to shoot the readers after a couple hours… not their fault.. I am already bored and they have been in my ear.. switching to music works for a bit.. but not so much.. I am bored - have to change activities to alleviate it. hehe
for shorter sessions, then music more then the audiobooks..keeps my energy up a bit more.
Angela on 01 Aug 2008 at 2:33 pm #
I am most assuredly a music person. I sing in a church choir. Both of my parents were musicians.
I like pretty much every thing but country, rap and the stuff kids listen to today on their Ipods and MP3 players. It’s Noise, not music.
I still have vinyl, and a record player, cassettes, and cd’s.
Add them all together and you have 2000+.
Yes, music does get stuck in my head and I can’t get it out.
Thanks so much for the songworms because they are running around in my head now. What’s been stuck there? Funkytown.
Gotta go.
Paula on 01 Aug 2008 at 3:05 pm #
I love all sorts of music: Bryan Adams,Enya, westlife, Boyzone, Abba, Shania Twain, Robbie Williams, Aha (from hthe 80’s) Amy McDonald, Rod Stewart, the Corrs, Ricky Martin plus lots more. Thanks to my 2 boys (and my DH) I will ow listen to Billy Idol, hard not to when you are all in the car!!
Paula on 01 Aug 2008 at 3:06 pm #
Sorry that should be now (it used to be ow!) I cannot stand a group from the 80’s called The Smiths they are so depressing.
Kathy/Cookie on 01 Aug 2008 at 5:55 pm #
Paula, I am with you on the Smiths!
I never understood why my friends liked them so much.
in the 80s I listened to Yaz, XTC, Bananarama, New Order,Depeche Mode,
Adam Ant!
British imports were huge in Canada!
I lived in the dance clubs through my 20s.
I’m still friends with the DJs from 1985!lol
Sabrina Jeffries on 01 Aug 2008 at 6:52 pm #
Fresh; I can’t use the Belkin thingy because it uses radio, and we
have so many stations locally that I can’t find a free station.
Sabrina Jeffries on 01 Aug 2008 at 7:17 pm #
Wow, I can’t get over all the people who have vinyl! My husband has a few records but I am strictly a cd or mp3 person. He will not do mp3s at all. Can you tell I’m using KarenH’s smart phone at conference to post this?
Kathy/Cookie on 01 Aug 2008 at 8:17 pm #
no I can’t tell that at all, Sabrina!
I have a few records still- my dad’s collection mostly. original broadway recording of Fiddler on the Roof.
soundtrack to Kiss Me Kate-
“It’s too darn hot” is my all time fav tune worm!
and my most cherished~ Shirley Temple as a teen narrating Bambi.
No record player to play them on, but a friend has one, so when I get the urge, I go over there.
I also have every Osmond reccord known to man- including Goin’ Coconuts!
Malady on 02 Aug 2008 at 11:22 am #
LOL,
firstly Hello all.
secondly, I am a music person, I cannot sing, but I cant stand silence, i sleep to music… i must have sound… drove the nurses in hospital mad once… i now have official records of bad behaviour becuse i wouldnt sleeep, at 5 they tracked down this sorry looking radio… the only time i hated having a private room… too quiet.
I love music, but mainly im listening to my boyfriends music…. think the entire Final Fantasy game series score… tetris theme… (argh thats a tuneworm)….. Dr. Horribles Sing along Blog (stand back everyone nothing here to see)…. ummm. I find that i know the words to lots of of older songs 70’s-80’s. but I love Classical, its my main genre. struass was my first CD ever. also the only songs ive heard in the past couple month as far new music… i kissed a girl (ick), and Black and Gold.
And this week a shop near where i live started to sell a record player with a USB plug… it records vinyls as Mp3 onto comps!!