Day 11: Thinking out loud on ‘Expectation’

What ingredient is most critical for a captivating and moving experience? The music concert is an experience which elicits the performers to blend a spectrum of attention-grabbing techniques. The concert is influential and most impacting to people in the unexpected turns that it takes. The unanticipated is what drives internal change, simply by breaking habit or state of the experiencers. A consistent aural, visual, emotional or intellectual cloud is one way to establish expectation. Through consistency you allow the process to seem predictable. This must be used to your advantage as the performer. Why? {Enter banality] This is because boredom is rooted in the behavioral patterns which are consistent and therefore predictable. By engineering positive shock, you become increasingly more captivating. The challenge seems to be the balance of the unpredictable with the consistent.

If we are seeking consistency, is growth a needed or necessary theme? The development of an idea over a concert or piece allows for the experiencers to feel progress. It’s the difference between a moving bus and a stationary one – when will we move again? This is the role of psychology in the concert process. How can our guidelines or rules ensure that certain outcomes or reactions will happen? We need to lead people to common truths or have an axiom for takeaway. The narrative plot, sonata-form and other linear forms provide a clear structure for growth to be explored and expressed. Through these forms, we can create a positive shock and guide people to revel in the wonder of the unexpected.

JT