Music to Learn to

When writing code, I can throw on headphones, crank the volume and listen to music from MIA, Mumford and Sons or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But when I’m learning – reading books or watching instructional videos – I find lyrics distracting. My collection of instrumental music has grown over the last few months while I’ve been digging into Objective C and Ruby on Rails. It plays in the background on low volume. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Beastie Boys: The In Sound from Way Out! (itunes)
• Beastie Boys: The Mix-Up (itunes) [Yes, these two Beastie Boys albums are instrumental]
• Jim Guthry: Sword and Sworcery LP – the Ballad of the Space Babies (itunes)
• Ramin Djawadi: Game of Thrones (Music from the HBO Series) (itunes)
• Hans Zimmer: Black Hawk Down (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [This one has lyrics, but they are in a different language, so they do not distract.] (itunes)