Two months into this fall semester, many of us have entered the “mid-semester slump” and it’s the kind of monster that’s hard to shake. What better way to combat it than the ultimate study playlist? Keep motivated and focused by having the best soundtrack to your education.
Where does it start? Make a shell, starting with a few of your favorite songs, so that there are spots amid your studying for a nice dance break and sing-along. If dancing and singing doesn’t sound like a good time to you, it will at least serve as a brain break.
The hard part comes next: Fill in songs that won’t distract you. It’s often been said that classical music is the best to listen to while doing work, but delving into that genre of music isn’t easy for a lot of people. A solution to this dilemma comes in the form of songs you know that you don’t know you know.
While this seems odd, classical pieces have been used as scores in films, parodied in cartoons and been background music in commercials, so you’re probably much more familiar with classical pieces than you’d expect. Some of the most well-known include the “William Tell Overture,” which was the theme for “The Lone Ranger.” Ludwig van Beethoven’s fifth and ninth symphonies are both used in countless films. Themes from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets and “1812 Overture” also have been commonly used. And Richard Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra” was popularized by “2001: A Space Odyssey” and Carolina football.
Looney Tunes did a great job of including the classics, so the “Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner may ring a bell as “kill the wabbits” by Elmer Fudd and “The Barber of Seville” may as well be credited to Bugs Bunny.
For the adventurous, my recommendations include the overtures to both “Nabucco” and “La forza del destino” by Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne Suites,” Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” and Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.”
To add even further, non-lyrical covers and acoustic versions of popular songs are the perfect inclusion for your playlist to keep you on track. Artists like The Piano Guys and Two Cellos record all kinds of music and do classical-pop mashups that could earn a spot on your go-to list.
With a playlist like this, the only other step to success is actually dragging out the textbook that has been collecting dust for the last month.