Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. The subject today is about the importance of volume in music. It’s interesting, as technology has grown, the use of volume to reach larger and larger audiences has ensued over hundreds of years. Originally, music was just singing, because the human voice is the first musical instrument. Then percussion instruments came along with people banging on things to make even more sound. With the invention of modern instruments like the saxophone, volume again increased. Then electronics took us to another level with how much volume is possible. But today, we’re talking about something a little bit different. The subject today isn’t about how the volume of musical instruments and musical expression has grown over generations and beyond, but how volume in your own music has a profound effect upon the listener and the emotions that are conveyed. The actual amount of amplitude, the energy of sound levels, has a profound effect upon how you feel when you’re listening to music. I’m going to demonstrate this for you with some original music to celebrate the new year. I hope you enjoy this!
See the accompanying video to hear the performance
Sometimes you can actually make a far louder message by holding back and playing delicately. The same thing is true with technology on a grander scale. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into venues where the music has been so loud that you can’t really appreciate it because it’s beyond the threshold of pain! Any sound over 100 decibels is considered to be above the threshold of pain. If you go into a club, often the music is far above that level. But lower volume music actually draws listeners in! That’s the lesson for today on a personal level, as well as a global level.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this! Here at Living Pianos we wish you a great new year of music! We have plenty of great subjects for new videos in 2021, so stay tuned!
I’m Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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6 thoughts on “Does Music Need to be Loud to be Good?”
At one point, deviantART asked to use some of my images for a rock concert pre-show. The performer was from Australia, and his music was far from as loud as the usual volume of rock. I accepted, but I was required to attend the concert, so I did. When they first started up, I knew it was too loud, and the volume obscured his words, which was too bad because he had quite a sense of humor, and the lyrics were interesting. So I covered my ears to tone it down. Someone who works in the theater offered me ear plugs, which I accepted and still covered my ears. But I didn’t realize the volume was harming other parts of my body. After 10 minutes, I went out and sat in the hall and finished listening there. It did something to my ribs. Ever since then, I sometimes have muscle spasms and pain in my ribs if I turn my torso the wrong way. I wrote him an email and told him about the problem, and I said, I won’t sue but someone else might. I got back a gracious reply from the artist himself, saying he would have his engineers investigate.
I have never heard of anything like that before!
My partner cannot attend certain concerts because of the noise level that sets off his heart atrial fibrilation response which is otherwise well controlled by daily medication. We once had to walk out on a Rocky Horror stage show at the beginning, because of this. We’re unsure why music has increased in loudness over time, or why do many perceive it to be necessary at all? Your piece is lovely! Thanks for sharing it.
I think the volume at concerts is due to technology surpassing human sensory perception in regards to audio. Before the advent of electronics, music was limited by how hard someone could blow through or hit something. Electronics changed all of that. And electronics grew as well! So today, there is virtually no limit to the reproduction of sound at all frequencies at any volume. Unfortunately, there are some audio engineers who probably have some hearing loss themselves doing sound for bands!
Long long ago a friend of mine knew the band leader Artie Shaw. One thing Shaw said about loudness is that if you want something to come across as loud, gradually play softer leading up to it. It’s the contrast within the music rather than the absolute decibels that people perceive.
You hit the nail on the head with that story!