Listening to music has become so much more accessible in today’s world with the advent of online streaming services and sharing platforms some songs (both older and recent releases) and pieces have now found a renewed popularity as background music on apps like TikTok, Vine and Instagram (Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights”, Estelle’s “American Boy”, A-Ha’s “Take on Me”, and Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” come to mind).
No matter how accessible listening to music has become, nothing beats the experience of watching musicians play live. In this blog entry, we share our top reasons every musician and learner of music should watch live performances.
- Atmosphere – you get to FEEL the music, the bass frequencies giving a tactile sensation in your chest, the sound waves surrounding you. This is the most ancient way of listening to music, and there is simply no substitute for it. This shared experience with the rest of the audience can give you a sense of community and connection with like-minded individuals all present to enjoy the same show, that transcends boundaries of language, or cultural background.
- Live performances carry an energy that recordings can’t replace — whether it’s a more reflective Classical concert, a dynamic Jazz gig, or a heart-pumping Rock show, the thrill of musicians performing together in front of an audience, without do-overs or restarts, is a powerful and exciting thing to witness in person.
- You can see the hard work needed to become a great player, and the results of this dedication – Seeing live performers at the height of their craft is both inspiring and instructive for learners and budding musicians. Many great artists can pinpoint a specific concert as the moment they knew they were in love with their craft.
- Watching Live Performances can inspire new goals! – By watching other musicians play, aspiring musicians realize the potential of their instrument. A vocalist with the lead in the musical, or at the head of a rock band reminds a young singer that there’s more to the music than just singing the correct notes. A guitarist playing with a band reminds the student that it’s important to practice with the metronome to keep a steady pulse and keep in time with the rest of the players.
- Discovering new kinds of music and sound possibilities – a great benefit of attending live concerts is the opportunity to hear new sounds. Musicians playing together can produce a wide variety of textures and styles of music. By allowing young musicians to hear different styles of music, they expand their musical knowledge, and quite often, they acquire a new “favorite” music style that then inspires them to shape their own playing.
- You get to enjoy the performance aspect of art. This might seem like it goes without saying, but live performance can often bring an entirely new visual and dynamic element to music that you can’t get from recordings. Some truly great artists can even come to be known even more for their live performances than for their recordings.
- You’re surrounded by people like you – Even if you’re in a room (or open field, or stadium, or concert hall) full of strangers, you’re all united by one thing— your love for whichever artist you’ve bought tickets to see. You’ll look out at the sea of t-shirts and posters that you recognize and feel at home with people you’ve never met.
- Watching a live show can teach kids (and adults!) mindfulness, to be present in the moment – learning to be in the moment comes with plenty of benefits for kids: building empathy, increasing focus, and learning coping mechanisms. To practice mindfulness, kids need to learn patience, and these days that can feel like an extra challenge, as now with technology, children have access to any type of entertainment they want, and usually in short clips or spurts, this creates a constant illusion of having a “change of scenery” that children come to expect as a result.
Watching a live performance creates an entirely different entertainment experience than they might be used to. They’ll learn how to be engaged in something from the beginning to the end without any extra screens, video clips, or texts to distract them. Not only are live performances fun and engaging, but they help kids (and let’s face it, adults as well!) learn and grow.
- It’s great fun! Going out to see a concert featuring a performer you love or a promising up-and-comer with your friends and/or family is an amazing, uplifting way to spend an evening. You’ll come away feeling energized in a way that you can’t imagine, and it’s a great way to bond over a shared love of music, theatre, or dance.
- Merch! – Live shows often feature merchandise commemorating the performance that make a great keepsake for the memories you make while at a concert This is also a great way to support the artists you love, especially smaller local artistes, allowing them to continue performing and writing the music you love and enjoy.
