Does the music you're listening to affect your game?

Hi,

This little thought came to my mind, wanted to share it with you:

As the title says, specifically in live chess & real life blitz games, does the music you are listening to affect your gameplay, in terms of you choose the sharper lines or the positional ones depending on your mood, generally? For me the answer is yes! look at the two examples of my own live chess games i played recently:

In the first one i was listening to a song called "Metal Militia", an extremely fast song, which made me a little nervous (!) and completely out of myself. as a result i played a wild game with an attack which ended up a mate in 18 moves: 

In the second one, things were so calm...a cup coffee & celine dion staff, made me go for the closed & positional options:  

 I'm sorry, maybe this looks stupid to some of you. But just wanted to share it, and if there's anyone wierd like me (!) please tell me.

I think it makes a big difference!

lol, but yeah. Good music can make you play well (music changes your mood - your mood changes your play)

I'm left wondering what kind of game you'd have played listening to "Anesthesia" , "Orion" or other intrumental that starts off slow but then engages heavy.

Well, it doesn't really matter drshinnick...as themoonwalker pointed out it's more like how your mood is. and so, sometimes one can even play very bad games against a weaker opponent.

thanx everyone, for sharing your thoughts...  

I tried listning to music while playing last night.  Didn't like it.

Wow that's amazing, I suppose there could be extreme cases where music greatly affects the outcome of a game, but there may have been other variables involved too.

Hmm..never thought of it that way.. will try this out..

(now where's that barbie girl cd of mine...)

interesting post...i mostly agree, the music does affect ur game, however does it actually help u think? Some ppl say music is bad for ur concentration, some disagree. im not sure - what do u think?

I have it on in the background while I play online. Just whatever comes on. Could be cradle of filth, could be lionel richie, could be oasis etc etc. The whole point is that i can concentrate efficiently regardless of what is going on around me.

I played at a local club in a league game where there was a concert in the next room to our game, and i was used to pure silence before. It really threw me (Elvis impersonator sucked too btw!!!) so I made a conscious effort that i need to learn to concentrate better. I absolutely hate Cradle of Filth and all that talentless nasty screeching crap but if I can play through stuff I can hate, I am prepared for the worst in a live game setting.

I don't listen when I play

I liked the first game a lot, so I might try rock / metal to "inspire" a wild and unorthodox game

Listening to Instrumental music is best for me when I play chess. Especially instrumental post-rock. The stuff I listen to is beautiful and uplifting, and keeps me optimistic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xyxtzD54rM&feature=autoplay&list=TLIqWxHXBzBBE&index=9&playnext=8

try this song!!

well it wasnt really crazy, the first one. it looked perfectly sound, so, listen to that crappy sounding song more. no offense. "metal militia"????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sesOnXMcaBk&feature=bf_next&list=TLIqWxHXBzBBE&index=11

I listen to this song and I won this game not that good but I won..

I am just start looking for the crazy music that I was listen to long time ago..

Your mind will always be unconsciously affected by such things -- with the fast song, your mind associated that song with aggression, so unconsciously your mind was steering towards a bit more offense. Vice versa with the slow song. This is simply how our mind works. However, I'm not sure how strong the effect is -- those games could have still been coincidences.

"The whole point is that i can concentrate efficiently regardless of what is going on around me."

You might be more distracted than you think. Just by hearing sounds your mind is identifying it -- and indeed, in the case of music, interpreting it (that's how we feel certain emotions while listening) -- and this is just one other thing the brain ends up doing while you're trying to think. However, certain music, especially if it's not overly loud, may still help because although technically your mind is to some extent distracted, it might be in a subtle, soothing way.

that is ture bro, I used to use music to motevate me to run when I was trying to quite smoking 5 years ago and it worked sence then I don't know to do any thing without listen to music...

Perhaps I should give it a try myself

maybe there is a proverb saying music is the soul nutrition..

Being a musician, naturally I love music. When I'm playing chess, though, I hate it. It is a constant distraction.