Hey everyone!
As it’s the beginning of a new academic year, I have decided that the theme for the first Her Campus playlist should be designed to help with studying.
Everyone is different and will have different preferences to studying. Some people will prefer silence, whilst others will prefer quiet music in the background.
For me, I always find listening to gentle orchestral or piano music the best way to study. Being trained as a classical musician, I have always been used to listening to this type of music. If classical music isn’t your thing, I would recommend anything that is gentle and easy going.
I have purposely chosen instrumental pieces as I find them less distracting when doing work. Despite this, I have added a range of pieces with different instrumentation from classical repertoire such as Mozart and Beethoven to covers of pop songs arranged by instrumentals.
Listen to the spotify playlist here!
- Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K466 (Romance) by Mozart, Clair De Lune by Debussy and Air on the G string by Bach- During my studies, these pieces have become very familiar to me and they are brilliant to study with.
- Waters Edge and Story Teller by Jason Boyd-These were written by one of my former music teachers. He has composed so many pieces for solo piano, which are always wonderful to listen to. I would highly recommend listening to more of his work as their all lovely compositions!
- Perfect, A Thousand Years and Bring him home by Piano Guys- These guys are a brilliant ensemble of piano, cello (and the occasional vocalist). They do so many arrangements of pieces from classical to modern day music and they bring their instruments into a new world of their own.
- Longing by Kari Bin, Six Etudes for Piano by Philip Glass- As I said earlier, I always love listening to piano music when I’m studying. These pieces are very calm and lovely to have in the background.
- New End by Stephen Rennicks, The Last Man by Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet, Serene Solitude by Silver Maple and By Night by Sophie Hutchings- Again, I usually have these pieces playing in the background too, however these pieces are accompanied by string players which is a lovely compliment to the piano part.
- Patience by The Lumineers- I discovered this piece when I bought their album “Cleopatra”. It’s such a compliment to the rest of the album.
- Day One by Hans Zimmer, Time by Hans Zimmer, Nemo Egg by Thomas Newman, The Dream of a Normal Death by Murray Gold- These were all ones that I found whilst doing research for this blog and they are all brilliant orchestral music. I would recommend anything by Hans Zimmer, John Williams and Howard Shore as they are all brilliant film and television composers.
- Music for Students and Meditate (Flute Music) by Study Music-I found this on an album called “Top 30 Pieces of Calm New Music to Study”. The whole album is specifically designed to help with studying and concentration. I chose the Meditate as it’s a brilliant example of how beautiful a flute can sound but I highly recommend any of the pieces on the album too.
- The Princess Bride, Edward Scissorhands-Ice Dance and Kingdom Hearts-Dearly Beloved by Vitamin String Quartet- These guys are one of my favourite string ensembles. They have made so many arrangements of modern hits from Queen to Coldplay. If you want to listen to a good classic with a twist, I would definitely recommend these guys!
- Cloudbusting, Clocks and Run by Eklipse- Again, another string quartet that does arrangements of popular pieces.
- Méditation by Massenet- This is a personal favourite of mine. I studied this piece a few years ago and I always love the beauty of the piece. The version that is on the playlist is for violin and orchestra however there are many different versions of this that are all wonderful to listen to.
Here are some more that I found whilst doing my research that are brilliant to listen to:
- Gymnopedie-Richard Mollenbeck
- Erla’s Waltz-Olafur Arnalds
- Rest your way home-Lance Allen
- Evaluation-Song for Cello-Lefebure String Quartet
Here are some Spotify playlists that I recommend too. I have always used these playlists on Spotify and are lovely to have in the background, particularly if you like listening to classical music:
I hope you enjoy the first Her Campus playlist and that it helps with your studies!
Have a lovely week everyone!
Becky Abel