How to Write an Interesting Concert Review?
A review combines personal opinion and reporting. Review writing has a specific goal: evaluation of something. Typically, it is something that you do every day. Whether you’re at the supermarket judging the quality of the products to buy, or watching your favorite musical concert and evaluating the performances of the singers, you are judging things unconsciously.
Review writing does not have a fixed structure. It varies in style and size. The genre of review writing is quite vast. People write reviews about a television program, books, films, restaurants and musical performances.
Although review writing encapsulates different domains, it has one aim, which is to evaluate. Stating your judgments and opinions seems an easy task, but review writing has specific rules. You have to support your analysis with evidence. It is not merely the interpretation of your opinions, but something you want your readers to believe in and make an opinion.
Concert review, in this regard, is a description of the overall concert experience. It is not merely about reflecting on the musicians. You need to evaluate the time, location, venue and audiences’ engagement to write a concert review. Most importantly, it aims to present a comparison of different concerts as an attempt to place them in a broader context.
An excellent concert review exemplifies all the subtleties to help readers grasp the quality and atmosphere of the concert. As a reviewer, it is essential to capture the minute details of the entire music scene in concert review paper. In addition, supporting your evaluation with evidence is vital to convince readers of your opinion.
If you are thinking about trying various avenues in this genre, these are the things that may help you improve the quality of your concert review.
Reviewers’ Background Knowledge
Writing a captivating and informative concert review is a challenging task especially if you are not a musician. To analyze the complex domain of music, you should have good knowledge and understanding of musical styles and theory.
Moreover, if you do not understand your target audience or their music interests, your review will not make an impact. For example, young music lovers are more interested in knowing the vivid description of the performances. However, for music teachers, it is all about strengthening their understanding of music theory, instruments, composition, and expression of emotions.
What do Your Readers Want to Know?
Typical readers are more interested in exploring the overall impact of the concert. They expect a reviewer to reflect on the concert as a product. However, if your reader has an in-depth musical understanding of different genres, and music pedagogy, your review must incorporate technical details as well.
On the other hand, if your reader is a concert programmer, he would expect you to describe the entire music scene. He/she will look for ideas to present music on different locations and concerts or how he/she can add diversity to concert programming.
There are certain common things that almost every reader wants to know about a piece of music. It includes the appropriateness of instruments for the music, the energy level of musicians and the reaction of the live audience.
Writing Style
The way you express things has a significant impact on your readers. Review writing requires a very carefully written expression. It has to be a balanced combination of formal and informal writing when it comes to reviewing a concert.
It is better to avoid using personal pronouns such as, “I,” “your” and “you.” Using them demonstrates your subjectivity towards expressed opinions. Moreover, if you want to add exclusivity to your concert review, avoiding clichés, non-specific generic terms like ‘interesting or exciting’ is a good practice. Try to add colorful adjectives that specifically describe music. Words like ‘fascinating or appealing’ sound more suitable when it comes to writing a concert review. For example:
“Sonorous pedals, a tender melody, freshness of musical sound, a deep bassoon solo, mellow horn chorale.”
How Can You Write a Good Concert Review?
To write a good concert review, you have to be vigilant and listen to live musical events. Translating your auditory observation into a written expression is highly demanding. Your analytical skills greatly depend on your in-depth understanding of music.
Concert review is divided into two phases. The first phase includes your observation before and during the audio event, and the other one is the review-writing phase. The given report sample will help you outline the essential features of a concert review.
Pre-writing Phase
Read the Instructions
The purpose of review writing may vary from individual to individual. If you are writing a review for an academic assignment, it is essential to read the instructions and requirements. However, if it is one for a magazine or newspaper, you must know your target audience.
Get Access
To ensure your physical presence, you need to make all the prior arrangements (entry tickets). If possible, choose a seat where you can have a clear view of the stage and the audience.
Note down Your Observations
This is the most critical phase. Reliability of your concert review depends on how well you have observed things. It is not only the musical performances that require your attention, but you also need to focus on the space and time of the concert as well. Note down the details such as musician’s attire, intermission, and stage lighting, etc. Take notes of an informal and formal conversation between the musicians on the stage.
Make a List of Compositions
This information is essential to tell your readers what compositions were part of the concert. Determine the reasons why you find some of your pieces extraordinary the reasons. You can approach the concert manager to receive an official list of compositions played in the concert.
Review Musicians
Note down how good or bad the performances were. State your reasons why the performances were outstanding, average or terrible to justify your opinion. Take notes on how stage banter contributed to the performance. Pay attention to every minute detail including musicians’ gestures, positions, and attires and back up players.
Observe the lead singers, their confidence, and how they engage and interact with the live audience. How they make use of the stage space?
Observe the Audiences
Musician’s performance, to some extent, depends on the audience response. There is no denying that your focus should be on the musicians, but neglecting the audience is not a good idea. Your reader always wants to know about the atmosphere of the concert, as the audience is an integral part of it. This means you must note down the type of people who showed up, audience size and their response.
Review Writing
Review writing phase begins once you have attended the concert. Your review should include:
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Review Introduction
Review introduction includes all the concrete details. It must have a clear title, concert date, venue, musicians/ conductors/ and ensemble names. Including the specific details about the local venue and location may be helpful for readers who are not familiar with the concert area. In addition, mention if the audio event was held late night, or earlier in the evening.
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Review Description
The main body of your concert review should incorporate a description of different compositions played during the musical event. Elaborate your notes on the musical performances. It is better to discuss each performance in a separate paragraph. Your description format may vary according to the music genres. Make sure you mention the title, composer’s name and brief information about the performance with audience response.
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Evaluation
Evaluation is the essence of your whole concert review. You can grab the attention of your readers by telling people about the overall concert experience. Tell your readers if it was worth attending or not. What made this concert stand out from other musical events? Expand on your review by writing the relevant facts about the band’s reputation, history, and the effect of the venue.
Give your honest opinion why you did like the show or what made you enjoy it. Was it up to your expectations? Similarly, after reflecting on the positive aspects, mention what did the concert lack? Highlight the points that could have been improved upon.
Evaluate the response of the audience. How, as a whole, they responded to each performance. If there were more musicians, who audience applauded to the most and why? You can also evaluate the overall concert management, venue space, and seat arrangement, etc.
Moreover, your review must include the evaluation of the acoustic quality of musical instruments. As it might have a negative or positive impact on the performance, write about if the live music was better than the studio version.
Useful information: Find some great evaluation essay examples.
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Conclusion
Your final verdict summarizes your overall concert experience. In conclusion, you can talk about the concert’s impression and whether it met your expectations or not. Make sure you do not include any information regarding the upcoming concerts in your conclusion part.
Bottom Line
Overall, review writing is a long process and is different from other genres. You need to experience something to reflect on it afterwards in person. To write a concert review, you must have a good understanding of music. You should know your target audience and the right format. Thus, the given tips are beneficial to write a comprehensive concert review.
