Do You Listen to Music While Reading?
Today I’d like to ask you: when you’re reading a book, do you put on background music, and if so, what kind? Scientific evidence suggests that vocal music actually interferes with reading comprehension (Souza & Leal, 2023).
Some books even include QR codes that link to music tracks. As a writer, I’m not entirely convinced by this idea, for two reasons:
- Scanning with your phone pulls you out of the book and into the dreaded screen.
- A single page can contain multiple shifts in tone and emotion. Music can’t always keep up with the nuances of rising tension, fear, or humor. This is especially true in children’s literature: take, for instance, chapter 2 of Chiquillos, Intruders at the Worksite, where sudden emotional twists carry us from action, to fear, and then unexpectedly to laughter.
And how do we use music as writers?
If vocal or lyrical music distracts you from reading, imagine what it does while writing. Instrumental music or film scores might help instead. Personally, I only turn to music occasionally, usually to break through a creative block. Most of the time, the music is already in your head, along with the characters, the lighting, and the scenery. Think of cinema: the soundtrack is usually added once the film is already edited.
Of course, much depends on genre. In classic noir fiction, for example —a genre with darker, more closed atmospheres— music can serve as a more consistent companion.
In short: as a reader, I rarely listen to music. As a writer, silence is my greatest ally. Allow me to leave you with these two lines:
Silence is the nest where creativity is born.
Silence is what a blank canvas is for a painter.
References:
Souza, AS. y Leal LC. (2023) Should We Turn off the Music? Music with Lyrics Interferes with Cognitive Tasks. Journal of Cognition 6(1):24. doi: 10.5334/joc.273. https://journalofcognition.org/articles/10.5334/joc.273
Do you like to read? I love to write
Germán Ruiz writer.
Discover CHIQUILLOS (Spanish): the children’s novel winning the hearts of hundreds of young readers.
How to cite this blog post (APA format):
Ruiz, G. (2025, October 17). Do You Listen to Music While Reading? Writer Germán Ruiz’s website. https://www.germanruizescritor.com/do-you-listen-to-music-while-reading/