Live Music
“Live music is better.”
Practice
Support. Look for opportunities to support live music.
Participate. Engage with live music as a multisensory, embodied experience.
Connect. Notice how music fosters a shared connection to others in the audience.
Live music uniquely connects us to both people and place. It’s a communal experience that not only creates a connection between artist and audience, but those in the audience to one another. Shared music has been central to civilizations for both ceremonies and celebrations. Among the earliest expressions of humans, shared sounds formed communal bonds and reinforced beliefs. In a cultural moment where AirPods and headphones isolate and insulate us with sound, the practice of listening to live music invites connection, creation, and celebration.
The extraordinary ability and humanity of artists is illuminated through live music. The sounds have not been recorded, edited, and perfected. What generates the electricity in live music is that it inherently invites spontaneity and unpredictability. Artists improvise and respond to the audience, and in doing so, the audience uniquely participates in the creative process.
The connection of live music is not only audible. Seeing artists as they shape the musical sounds through their bodies and instruments contributes to the experience. Live music is a multisensory embodied encounter of hearing, seeing, and feeling sound. The sound waves from a bass guitar or brass section of an orchestra are absorbed by our bodies. This whole-body experience, shared by both artist and audience, is unique to live music. It is a moment in time and place that cannot be reproduced or recreated.
Listening to live music has a dynamic effect on our social and emotional connections. A live music concert fosters a sense of connection among individuals who were previously strangers. Studies have shown that live music moves the audience in synchrony, and through this synchronic movement, there are greater levels of trust, cooperation, and appreciation for one another. At the conclusion of a concert, a bond has been formed through the sharing of sound and place.
An embodied way to cultivate connections with the people and place around you is listening to live music.
