Make a fall playlist

A fall playlist takes about ten minutes to start, and it gets used more than almost anything else you’ll make this season. You press play when you walk, bake, drive or study. The best ones start small and keep growing for the rest of the season.

Start with three songs

Don’t begin by searching “fall playlist” and copying one someone else made. Think of three songs that make it feel like autumn, and begin there. They might be songs you played every September at school, something from a film you rewatch every year, or a song you only play when the weather turns.

Those three tell you what your fall sounds like, and everything else is chosen to sit next to them. Most music apps have a “radio”, “recommended songs” or “similar” feature that suggests songs from your starting point.

What makes a song feel like fall

There’s no rule, but a few things come up a lot:

• Warm sounds. Acoustic guitar, piano, cello, soft drums.
• A slow or medium pace. Not sleepy, but not high energy either.
• Soft, wistful or nostalgic moods. Songs that feel like a cold morning with a hot drink.
• Old favourites. Songs you already associate with a time of year.
• Instrumental tracks. Good for studying, reading and cooking.

You can also go the other way. If your fall is brighter, with football games, road trips and big coats, you might want something with more energy. It’s your fall.

Decide what it’s for

A playlist with one purpose is easier to build and nicer to use.

• Walks. A medium pace that’s good to move to, with no long quiet parts.
• Baking or cooking. Warm and easy to sing along to.
• Reading or studying. Mostly instrumental, or songs you know so well they fade into the background.
• The whole season. Wider and longer, a bit of everything.

Build it

1. Create a new playlist and add your three starting songs.
2. Add songs you already like that fit, from your liked songs or saved tracks.
3. Use the app’s suggestions to find a few new ones. Listen for ten or fifteen seconds. If it doesn’t fit, skip it.
4. Aim for about 20 songs for an evening, or more for the whole season.
5. Play it from the top and take out anything that jars.
6. Name it and choose a cover photo. A picture of leaves, a mug or a sweater works. A name that says what it’s for is more useful than a clever one.

Order and flow

Put your strongest songs near the start, because that’s what you’ll hear most. Keep the energy in a similar range, with maybe a gentle rise in the middle. Shuffle is fine for a long playlist, but for a short one, listen in order once to check it holds together.

Keeping it going

Add a song whenever you hear one that fits, on a walk, in a shop, in a film. Your playlist will be better in November than it is today. Give it a quick tidy halfway through the season, and remove songs you’ve started to skip.

At the end of the season, don’t delete it. Keep it, and next September you’ll have somewhere to start.

Ideas for different kinds of fall

Fall isn’t one mood, so you can make more than one playlist. A rainy-day playlist can be slow, quiet and mostly instrumental. A golden-hour walk playlist can be warmer and more open. A cooking playlist can be upbeat enough to move around the kitchen. A late-night playlist for studying or reading can be gentle and unchanging. If you’re not sure where to start, choose the moment in your week when you most want it to feel like fall, and make the playlist for that.

You can also look back at the music you loved in earlier years. A song you played on repeat last October often still carries that feeling.

Make it a fall evening

Press play while you bake an apple pie or work on a puzzle, and notice which songs you skip. That tells you more than any list will.