Sounds are very distracting, they generate surface thoughts. A car horn will generate: Who's that, what's happening? A door opening will generate: Who's coming in or going out? The surface mind is always very curious about what is happening around you. It wants to know all, and it wants to inform you of every little thing going on around you. It will pressure you to open your eyes, get up and go find out what's happening.
Don't allow this to happen. USE these annoying, attention getting thoughts as a training aide. By learning to quash and ignore them, your powers of concentration will grow.
Stop these annoying little thoughts as they begin, before they can take root and grow into something stronger.
For example:
Who's that, what's happening? becomes: Who's th............
Who's coming in, or going out? becomes: Who's co............
With practise the start of these distracting thoughts will get shorter and shorter until you get:
Wh....?........?.......... and W...?...................
And finally:
.......?........?...........................?...................
Many people say they can't clear their mind as they are too easily distracted by all the small noises that surround them, in normal day to day activity. DON'T use music or other sounds to blanket these out, USE them for training. It's like weight lifting, if you train with feather dusters your strength will not increase. You need to master this, the hard way, if you want to give your mind real muscle.
Slowly but surely you will master the ability to clear your mind. Once accomplished, you will have gained a valuable mental tool. You will be able to concentrate 100% of your attention, on one task, to the TOTAL exclusion of everything else.
I sometimes meditate, in the trance state, successfully, in a noisy, crowded room with little children crawling all over me. NOTHING breaks my concentration.