As students, the reality is that we are bound to spend a good chunk of our time studying and preparing ourselves for our weekly classes, assignments, and exams. The one simple detail we all run into at one point or another is the struggle of finding some peace and quiet in which to focus.
Let's face it, sometimes our roommates are not the best motivations for good study habits. They may putter around their side of the room looking for something to distract them from accomplishing actual work. Their phones may constantly be buzz, buzz, buzzing with a stream of loud, interrupting text messages or notifications. They may just have the constant urge to tap their fingers or writing utensils to the rhythm of their own drum or to their favorite song of the day. Needless to say, you are left trying your absolute hardest not to focus on all of this distracting background noise and instead focus on your notebook, textbook, or computer screen trying to figure out how, on this green earth, you are ever going to get this assignment done.
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| This picture provided by richardoyork. |
Many students revert to going to a different study location. While this plan can sometimes be a safe haven, there are only so many places that offer totally dead silence for the quintessential studiers of the world. I can count the number of places of I have discovered on my college campus that are best equipped for studying, or for waking the dead with the strength of the silence, on one hand; there aren't many, that's for sure.
One sure-fire way to avoid having to migrate your entire course load to a new and isolated section of the world where no one knows you exist is through one pure wonder: music.
After doing a little bit of research, I found an article written by Aftab Ali titled, "Classical Music and Studying: The Top 10 Pieces to Listen to for Exam Success". This article was published in May of 2016 explaining the American and French studies on the impact of classical music in regards to test scores. In this rather brief article, the author describes how classical music is a successful tool in tuning out the world around you, focusing on your study material, and even helping release some of the anxiety you may have as you look at your crazy busy school schedule ahead of you.
The number one song on the list of classical music from this article is "Canon in D" by John Pachelbel. This song is almost a full three minutes of wordless, relaxing, slow-tempoed piano music, providing an essence of peace and comfort as one studies their materials until all hours of the night.
As a freshman college student this year, I have found many different methods of studying that have worked and failed miserably thus far in my educational career. While there are many who say classical music is a wonderful source of inspiration to crack open the textbooks and get to work, I find that I get easily distracted by classical music. Seeing the I used to play piano in my younger days, I will find myself focusing on the notes in a particular song instead of the words on my textbook page. Another slight detail is the constant change in songs. Unless you are a ridiculously fast worker and can get your assignments done in three or four minutes, the continuous break in music and switch from one song to the next allows for outside noise to break my focus and start me at the very beginning of my focusing process.
In years past, I have tried desperately to tune out the sounds of television and conversations between my parents as they go about their normal routines. If your family is anything like mine, the one thing we are not is quiet. In an attempt to extract myself from any and all noise, I decided the best way was to drown my house in nature music. My theory was that if I could listen to music that was from the natural world, I would have an endless supply of constant and soothing noise to keep my mind fixed on my work. I went so far as to download an app on my cell phone called "Nature Melody" that provided me with 31 different rhythms ranging from "wind blowing leaves" to airplane engines to "turkey talk" to ocean waves to rainfall and so many more.
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| This image provided by Marco Verch. |
While this method of background noise helped remove the loud and distracting sounds of my house, the phone app did not fully help me concentrate. Again I ran into a brick wall as I would actually anticipate the next ocean wave to sound through my ear buds or try to find a pattern in how the songbirds sang instead of putting my brain to good use in my studies.
Somehow, I endured high school with this melody app and some of my classical music playlist, though I will say that I pulled many late nights and suffered from a terrible lack of sleep during the school day. Well, I guess not much has really changed quite yet.
This year, I started to experience a similar issue. While trying to study for important exams or trying to finish assignments due the next day, I found myself getting easily sidetracked with the darnedest fixations of amusement such as checking my email, eavesdropping on conversations in the hallway, or listening to my roommate study out loud every now and then. I would always find an excuse to take my eyes away from my work, giving me less motivation by the second. My personal preference of music to drown out my college dorm distractions is through Study Music Alpha Waves. This almost three hour long YouTube video has an excellent flow of not so much a melody as just long, extended notes that blend together in no real pattern or rhythm. The sound of the song seems kind of off in the distance, allowing you to crank up the volume, ignore everything around you, focus on your schoolwork, and hopefully get you to bed on time.
Whether you choose to listen to classical, nature, or Alpha Wave music, these songs without words or foot-tapping melodies provide a calm and controlled environment for you to get your work done. While we all love college, sometimes we need to disappear into our headphones, and textbooks, to do our jobs: be students.
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