Impressions and observations made during a performance of live music

Music concert paper

The concert blogs represent an account of your impressions and observations made during a performance of live music. You may attend any kind of performance from blues to a classical recital. There are two approaches: go listen to something you really like, or go listen to something with which you have no experience. The latter offers a richer experience and gives you a greater palette upon which to draw. The musical event that you attend must be from this semester since I will ask you to listen for specific features. Given ticket prices for the most musical performances, you are not expected to lay out top dollar, or any dollars for that matter, for such a performance. You may go to a major concert event if it was already in your plans to do so, but you may also choose a smaller, cheaper (even free) venue. There is live music in clubs and even on campus, however, and the efforts of musicians who are not famous are no less sincere. One place I would recommend if you live on campus is the music school on Douglas campus. There is something going on every day. The following site will take you to the Mason Gross calendar which shows what and where all of these events are taking place: http://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/calendar/ I am interested in your observations, but I am not interested in a gushing advertisement for the musician or the band if you choose a popular music performance. While I do not expect full blown descriptions of musical style since you have been exposed to only the tip of the iceberg, supply what you can. Certainly providing a bit of history about the music and musicians should not be difficult–classical programs usually furnish this and there is information readily available online about popular musicians. If you choose to hear a local band and no info is available, then you might have to introduce yourself to these artists. That might not always be possible, but try. You might make new friends, although there might be some trepidation if the band you choose is really scary! LOL. If the band does not want to talk to you, then it is what it is. Whenever possible, you should include an image and a video of the group at work. It is usually not possible to furnish a video of the actual performance you attended, but there are still ways to get videos that are similar. With YouTube, there is a wealth of music videos, very likely including the local performers whose music you might have heard live. This includes everything from high school jazz orchestras to local rock bands. If you cannot find a video for the specific performer, you might find a short video exemplifying the style or the specific piece you heard just to give your reader some semblance and idea. Since this course will ultimately arrive at the context of music, I would like you also to include observations regarding the context. This will include any potential message the performer tries to impart in his music, what he does onstage to express that message, the audience he is targeting, how he interacts with that audience, and how the audience behaves in reaction. Often a mediocre musician can whip up an audience (and build a following) in the non-musical part of the show. I am also interested in the differences you note between a recorded performance and a live one. We have all grown accustomed to “perfect” recorded music. Real music is not perfect, and the musical quality of a live performance can help to measure in the listener’s mind the actual talent of the musician. If you attend a performance by a “big name,” it is important to observe and note how much of the music he/she actually produced live and if the show was a concert or a multi-media event. You should include your feelings about the degree of live music you actually heard and how good it actually was. Live music offers real challenges to delivering good sound quality to the audience. The shape of the room (or open air), the elevation of the musicians above the crowd, the location of speakers, the temperature, and even the density of the crowd all impact on the sound quality. There are questions that you need to ask yourself such as can you hear the singing clearly, is the band too loud or not loud enough, etc. So please include mention of the these differences in quality, acoustic issues, etc. In some cases, the performance might be fraudulent–as in dance routines and lip syncing replacing real music making. Your thoughts on this, including speculation why an artist might resort to this, are important. If you play in a band, you may make a video of one song, post it on YouTube under “education” and “unlisted” (so that it remains private), and then embed it in your blog. Whenever possible, media files (images and video, audio mp3s as last resort) should be included. Here you will take the opposite view from the audience member, giving details of the observations listed above from the perspective of the performer. This can include performances issues since these occur in every outing and usually go unnoticed by