Attending Concerts: an indispensable learning tool

Most students participate in band, which means that the performers they listen to most often are their peers.  While band is helpful in many ways, all students need a bigger vision for what they themselves can accomplish with music.


Attending concerts is tantamount to the well-rounded musical experience.  Concerts give students a chance to hear many types of instruments working together to create a variety of sounds, textures, and emotions.  Students need the exposure to the timber (peculiar voice) of instruments other than their own to discern how many sounds blend together for different effects.

Concerts generally include musical works from different time periods and composers, offering listeners an opportunity to compare and contrast the various forms and expressions used.  Classical works, for example, differ greatly from music that was composed in the Romantic, Impressionistic, Modern and Post-Modern periods.  Students often choose favorites and learn how the music performed compares to the pieces they are currently studying.


The concert experience opens the student's mind to a new cultural setting.  Though the degree of formality may differ depending on the performance, the general expectation of a concert is that it is a cultural event, so students learn to dress appropriately as an audience member, to be courteous listeners, to applaud at appropriate times (at the end of a complete work instead of between movements of a work or items in a series), and to pay close attention visually and aurally.


I encourage my students to attend as many professional performances as possible; in fact, I update parents regularly on upcoming opportunities, many of which are free.  Here is one that would be well worth your attendance:


The BJU Symphony Orchestra
Saturday, April 25, 7:00pm
Rodeheaver Auditorium
1700 Wade Hampton Blvd.
Greenville, SC 29614


for a complete list of upcoming concerts and a campus map, click here:

http://www.bju.edu/events/fine-arts/concerts.php