Catherine Backus, MT-BC
Mar 5, 20184 min
Updated: Jan 30, 2020
We live in a world where pretty much any song you could ever think of is available at the click of a button. As a songwriter, I have my criticisms of Spotify and YouTube, but as a listener? They’re awesome. With so many great recordings available, it almost makes live music seem obsolete- after all, we’re not trapped in the middle of nowhere with nothing to entertain us but a fiddle and a banjo, are we?
Though, I enjoy playing my banjo any day!
I’ll be the first person to defend the internet, but live music is irreplaceable, no matter how advanced our technology gets.
There are three main areas where I believe live music carries an advantage: Acoustics, Emotions, and Relationships.
Any audiophile will tell you that vinyl records sound better than MP3 digital recordings. The simple reason is that Vinyl is an Analog medium, meaning an exact imprint of the sound as recorded, whereas MP3s are Digital, an approximation translated through a computer. Coupled with weak iPhone Speakers or low-quality earphones, music just doesn’t sound that good. MP3s are compressed, which means that they’re incapable of providing the wide range of dynamics and frequencies that the original performance would have had.
So, if Vinyl is good, how does being in the same room with a performance compare?
Research Shows an increased entrained physiological response to music of different speeds and moods when the listener is present with the performer, compared to listening to a recording of the same performance.[1]
Without the barriers of microphones and cables and mixers and recording stations and cds and iphones and earphones (it’s a lot of steps to get music to your ears!),
The tradition of vernacular music in America is an inherently social one. Singing and playing has always helped us to band together under oppression, to celebrate with our communities, and to cure loneliness.
The way we listen to music now is particularly isolating- having headphones in one’s ears is the universal symbol for “please don’t talk to me.” Documentaries like Alive Inside showcase the power of recordings to reach people who may otherwise have been unreachable, but they neglect to address the fact that retreating into a world of you and your headphones doesn’t help you connect to others.
Many of the people I work with have difficulty or aversion to communicating verbally with others (I share some of these inclinations- there’s a reason my social calendar revolves around music).
One of my favorite things about making music with other people is that we. don’t. have. to. talk.
Improvisation lets us have entire conversations and shared experiences without saying a word. And musical training isn’t necessary!
Anyone can beat out their feelings on a drum, or sing to their fears. Because music making uses a different part of the brain than speech,
We are ALL musicians, not just listeners.
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Catherine Backus, MT-BC
REFERENCES
[1] Shoda, H., Adachi, M., & Umeda, T. (2016). How Live Performance Moves the Human Heart. PLoS ONE, 11(4), e0154322. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154322
[2] Darcy D. Walworth; Effect of Live Music Therapy for Patients Undergoing Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Journal of Music Therapy, Volume 47, Issue 4, 1 December 2010, Pages 335–350, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/47.4.335
#musicmaking #musictherapy #livemusic #musicispower #improvisation #olderadult #autism #specialneeds