A Classic Surprise

So as I was doing some research over the past week I came across a video on TED.com. The video I’m referring to is entitled “Benjamin Zander on music and passion.” I, being very passionate about music, was intrigued by this and decided to watch the video of his speech. Of course I knew that his talk was going to be about music and having a passion for music, but when I found out he was speaking about classical music, I’m not going to lie I almost turned it off. Now don’t get me wrong, I love all kinds of music, but I have never really felt a connection, let alone passion when listening to any kind of music without lyrics. Part of my love for music is trying to understand the meaning behind their lyrics. That was until I watched this video.

Benjamin Zander conducts an experiment with the crowd. At first he demonstrates what a child who is learning to play the piano sounds like. Of course, as there is more practice the playing gets better. My first thought was that the child is playing better because he has had practice and has become passionate about the music, but after thinking about this and watching the rest of Zander’s demonstration, I realized that I was wrong. Thinking back on my childhood I realized there are many things I learned to do (or was forced to learn to do) that after practice I was increasingly better at, but that didn’t mean I was passionate about them. What I came to comprehend was that you don’t become passionate about something just because you get better at it; you become passionate about something because you truly understand it and because of that understanding it begins to move you.

The particular part of the video that helped me grasp this was when Zander played a prelude by Chopin to the audience. He told the audience,

“I’ve one last request before I play this piece all the way through. Would you think of somebody who you adore, who’s no longer there? A beloved grandmother, a lover – somebody in your life who you love with all your heart but that person is no longer with you. Bring that person into your mind, and at the same time follow the line all the way from B to E, and you’ll hear everything that Chopin had to say.”

Although I was not in the audience, I was in fact sitting in my computer room starring at the screen watching this, I did as Zander asked and suddenly it all began to make sense. I didn’t understand the story Chopin was trying to tell until Zander interpreted it to me through his words before he played the piece and his actions while playing it. This experiment seemed to have very much the same effect on the audience.

You may be asking, “what exactly does this have to do with live performances?” and I will tell you it has everything to do with live performances. While you can purchase a CD or download a MP3, listen to it and understand what the artists is trying to express, there is likely a deeper meaning. Part of the magic of a live performance is being able to fully understand the artist’s meaning of their music through their body language, their tone, the mood they set, and the energy radiating from other fans sharing in the experience with you, all of which are all things you just cannot get from a CD or a MP3. So as a promoter, the next time you’re working with an artist on the promotion of a live performance, take the time to truly understand the message that the artist is trying to convey to their fans and use that to help create an experience those fans will be talking about for the rest of their lives.


- Lisa -