Music is an essential part of my creative process. The right music has the power to transport me into realms of imagination, inspiring and clearing away writer's block, while the wrong music can shut down my creativity! I keep different playlists for different themes in my books and will listen exclusively to these when writing something for the first time. For me, writing-time playlists are not limited to any particular genre, though they do include a fair number of Celtic or at least Celtic-inspired tracks, given the Celtic undertones of my novels. (If enough people were interested, I might make an example playlist to share!)
While I once pursued a classical Music minor (that I abandoned for such frivolous things as a Computer Science degree and desk jobs), I was never much of a performer, more of an amateur composer. Even in those days, I would see fantastic places, characters, and happenings while composing music. Maybe I will return to music someday, but for now my musical education does at least make an appearance in my writing. Music is an important theme in the Bard and Raven books. One of my main characters, Brennan, hears music in his mind that represents the world around him and gives him unique and critical insights. In a way, his is the inverse gift of mine. While I imagine things when I hear music, he hears music when things actually happen.