What is ambient music? If you’re new to ambient music, this will be the first question you ask. So, what is it? Well, ambient music is a type of instrumental music that focuses on creating atmosphere and mood rather than the traditional rhythm or musical structure.
While watching Brooke Passmore’s (the AuthorTuber) videos on YouTube, I noticed that she liked to listen to ambient music while she writes. It seemed like an interesting idea, so I decided to try it out during 2019’s NaNoWriMo.
So, before each writing session, I would choose an ambient playlist that suited the type of story I was writing—I would search for them on YouTube. At the time, I was working on my supernatural horror novella, so I chose to listen to spooky ambient music, such as the Haunted Forest Sounds ambient playlist.
Did listening to ambient help me to write? Well, I think it did. I normally listen to anything from Disney songs to Beyoncé while writing. But I would often find myself singing and dancing along to the song instead of writing. And even when I listened to Lindsey Stirling’s music, which is mostly instrumental, I would still find myself being distracted. So, ambient music did help improve my concentration.
Also, I found the music helped me to get into the right mood for writing, especially if I chose a playlist that fitted the story genre. During December I was writing a Christmas horror story. So to get me in the right mood, I listened to the 1 Hour of Dark Christmas | Krampus Christmas Music playlist. And then the words flowed, while I laughed like an evil genius.
Ever since finding ambient music, I have continued to listen to it during my writing sessions. And my list of playlists has grown, see below for a list of the ambient music playlists I have found on YouTube:
- Rain & Thunderstorm Sounds | Crackling Fireplace | 3 Hours
- 1 Hour of Dark Piano Music III | Dark Piano For Dark Thoughts
- Dark Underwater Ambient
- Vampire Ambient
- Dark Ambient Melodies
- Dystopian Music [ 1 hour of Dark Ambience by RNGMNN ]
- Hufflepuff Common Room | Harry Potter Music & Ambience
- Dark Winter Music & Medieval Fantasy Music
- STORYBOOK Fairy Tale Music – Fairy Tale Romance
Do you listen to ambient music when you write? If yes, feel free to tell me what you listen to in the comment box below.
Keep writing, folks!
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