Blog Post 3: Write a criticle review of a music performance.

A recent performance I viewed was a busker in Perth city; they were outside of the train
station with a keyboard and microphone playing covers of popular songs as well as some
original songs. The busker had a hat placed on the floor for tips and a small crowd of people
standing to listen to their performance. The busker’s musical performance was enjoyable
and gained a small amount of attention from the general public; however, it included some
minor problems such as technical difficulty, sound issues, and mistakes within the
performance. Musicking refers to the act of performing music as an activity rather than the
actual music itself (Small 1998); therefore, this busker’s performance is an act of musicking.

It was evident that the busker was passionate about music and enjoyed performing in front
of crowds during the performance. Their original songs were beautifully composed and very
meaningful. The busker did not explain the meaning behind their songs; however, through
listening to the lyrics, I was able to create my own interpretation of the lyrics.

There were some technical difficulties within the performance. Midway through performing,
the microphone stopped working; the busker quickly fixed this issue and continued with
their performance. The busker had skilful piano playing and, although it included a few
minor mistakes, they were not noticeable as the busker kept playing and acted as if nothing
had gone wrong. Both of these issues are inevitable. There is no real solution to these
problems; the busker was able to handle them efficiently and professionally, which resulted
in their performance being enjoyable to the audience; this supports the thesis.

The performance could have been improved by increasing the sound as it was difficult to
hear the performance when standing towards the back of the crowd. This issue could have
been solved by choosing a better venue as the chosen venue was outdoors and in a busy
area; therefore, there was a lot of background noise. In the future, the busker should
choose a quieter venue to allow the audience to hear their performance better.

Nobody is perfect; however, we are able to be the best person that we can; this
performance shows this as although there were mistakes, the busker was able to fix them
and continue with the performance. Everyone strives to be the best at everything (Mulder
2019), but this is impossible as everyone has different tastes and interests, so being ‘the
best’ is subjective and cannot be measured.

Overall, the busker’s performance did include some minor mistakes and issues; however,
the busker was able to handle these professionally. Therefore they did not deter from the
enjoyability of the performance. The technical, sound, and performance mistakes were
handled well and can be improved upon to avoid them in the future.
References:

Mulder, Johannes. 2019. The Sound of Musicking. podcast lecture. In Foundation in Creative
Media (CRE100). Lecture recorded at Murdoch University on Semester 2, 2019, 45 min.
https://echo360.net.au/lesson/4e6c4369-9dde-4117-9fb8-f151ea5b44b2/
classroom#sortDirection=desc

Small, Christopher. 1998. “Prelude: Music and Musicking.” In Musicking: The Meanings of
Performing and Listening, Ed 1. 1-18. Conneticut: Wesleyan University Press.