Music is born of Noise and applauded with Noise. The more musical a performance, the nosier the reaction. Some audience members might whistle or woo, but not usually in key. So too with blind hand clapping that says nothing of the tempo and rhythm of the applauded music just heard.
Drag over these noteheads:
The above example is taken from a live version of Harvest Moon by Neil Young. As you can hear, the sustain and decay of the final D major chord is completely drowned out by the cacophony of dissonant woo’s and arhythmic applause.
Audiences get lazy when they don’t have any licks. They have nothing to practice. They don’t get to have any participatory fun in the music created. It doesn’t have to be like this. There are things that an audience member can do to hone her awareness so that even at a suck-rock show, she can have a kick-ass time.
If the two aforementioned techniques of applause—claps and woo’s—were made to be musical, rather than noisy, then communication between performer and listener could be heightened, and live shows could be more engaging.
Check out figure 2—the tonal woo. For “Harvest Moon”, an audience member can woo the keynote D, to show her appreciation of tonality.
Henceforth, a crowd of people can woo the key chord of a song; in this case—D Major.
Now the above examples are not musically glorious, but that’s the whole point. Most audiences are flat anyway, because the alpha males sing louder than the herd. Regardless, the gesture of tonal wooing will be felt by the performers; just like how sing-alongs are more about the “along” than the “sing”.
As for hand clapping: might the audience clap to the tempo of the song they’re applauding? Try it out in the example below. And for the adventurous concert goer, she can perform polyrhythms on top of the crowd beat. Just use the natural membranophones found on your own body!
Try it at the next show you attend. Clapping in time and wooing in key. Fun shit.
Oh, and here’s a much better live version of Harvest Moon from SNL. It’s just Neil solo, without all the lame harmonies.
