Editing to Music
I’ve recently discovered Pandora Internet Radio. It’s so simple. You go to the site, choose the kind of music you want to listen to, and after maybe two whole mouse clicks your music is playing from your computer, for as long as you want and with only a short commercial for Pepto-Bismol every once in a while (at least that’s the commercial I heard this morning). Then you just have to remember not to navigate away from the site when you’re clicking around to do your various Internet things. That’s the part I haven’t quite mastered yet; I keep cutting off the music when I go to check my bank balance or write an e-mail.
This is terrific, for me and my clients. Music makes my brain work better. There is real scientific evidence for this out there somewhere (and if you happen to know where this evidence is, please let me know). My morning brain works best on baroque; my afternoon brain prefers opera, preferably Puccini, although it’s learning to be more flexible. But if I’m doing a difficult edit, I need to stick with something instrumental since anything with words—even if I don’t understand the words—can distract me. Also, I do tend to swoon during certain arias, and swooning cuts my productivity (again, somewhere there is scientific evidence on the adverse effects of swooning on editorial productivity).
Here’s something else you don’t need to know: I can write while listening to music with words I understand, but I absolutely cannot edit while listening to music with words I understand. But if I’m working on anything and can hear any sort of music that someone else is playing—even if it’s music I enjoy and could normally work right along with—the sound will drive me nuts and I won’t be able to work at all.
My brain is a strange place indeed.
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