While the rules of concert etiquette may be different across musical genres, the goal is still the same: engagement and enjoyment, but our culture does not always understand how to relate to music in a way that respects and commends the technical skill of the artist.

“I think that one of the emphases that I would place on this is that concert etiquette is not a special kind of etiquette when you look at the long view of history,” said Timothy McDonnell, associate professor of music. “It may seem special now, but we’ve lost so much of the context of civilized culture that it seems really weird.”

McDonnell said prior to the 18th century, audiences of classical music were small and elite. By the 19th century, though, the experience became more accessible to more people. 

“There is almost a liturgical element to the experience of classical music now,” McDonnell said. “And there are great benefits to that in the sense that you can have a quiet, close, intense encounter directly with the musical phenomena. The downside is that there’s a certain separation from our psychological experience in music and our desire to applaud or our desire to to express approval or disapproval of the music or the performance vocally, after it’s over.”

McDonnell said that over the centuries concert etiquette has evolved and grown. He said he wonders if modern etiquette for classical music has made it inaccessible for certain demographics of people. 

Modern etiquette is achievable with the right tools, though. Here are five ways to make current classical concert etiquette more clear and less frightening to navigate:

1) Research the event before attending. 

“The etiquette of preparing yourself for a concert starts when you make the decision to attend a concert,” said junior Anna Perrone, a music student. “It’s usually helpful, even if it’s not expected to research what you’re going to be attending a little bit. It will heighten your enjoyment of the event.” 

2) Dress to impress. Orchestras work hard to provide beautiful music, so it is an act of courtesy to dress up. Treat it like a fancy date.

3) Turn off that cellphone. Better yet, leave it in the car. My friend recently attended a concert where the conductor stopped the entire orchestra mid performance until an audience member silenced their Pyxis ringtone. Worst nightmare!

4) Grab a program. This will help in navigating the types of pieces being played. It may also prevent the painful faux pas of clapping between movements. 

“There’s a perennial custom of ‘don’t clap in between the movements,’ and that is very true,” Perrone said. “It’s kind of the same thing as ‘don’t take out your phone in the movie theater’ because it’s a little disrespectful and shows that you’re a little bit behind the classical music times.”

5) Do not give a standing ovation for everything. While a standing ovation is an amazing experience for a performer, it loses its significance when it happens at every performance. 

“There’s no better feeling as a performer than to get a standing ovation. It’s amazing,” Perrone said. “You’ve already got so much adrenaline from the actual performance. You finish and the audience shows you that they had a good time. They were impressed. They really liked it. However, I do think it can be overdone.”

Mark Douglass, sabbatical orchestra professor in the absence of Professor of Music James Holleman, said he believes engagement in and awareness of the music is the most important mindset which people can provide as an audience. 

“We show up early, we get a good seat, we read the program so that we’re familiar with what we are about to experience,” Douglass said. “We applaud an appropriate amount of time. We have a posture that is engaged. An engaged audience doesn’t want to sit down and put their feet up or something similar. You want to be physically engaged for the performers, and very silent and just absorb.”

Concert etiquette has similarities of formality in genres like jazz, though with less strict etiquette rules.

“If you need to get up and leave and take a phone call in the back, no one’s going to shoot you for that,” said junior Jack Walker, pianist in the Schismatics. “The audience is able to engage a lot more and be more raucous, and as a performer in jazz, I appreciate it when the audience engages and claps.” 

Understanding of the music and appropriate dress do still apply to a jazz concert, but the context of such a concert is different. 

In a concert atmosphere, engagement in and feedback to the performers is important. 

“You have a duty to show that you are actively engaging with the music and paying attention and watching the ebb and flow of the improvisation and focusing on the different moving parts,” Walker said.

The world of swing dance is closely associated with jazz. 

Gus and Jessica Vu, founders of Vu Du Swing in Dayton, OH, explained that jazz music has sections called “breaks.” A break is a musical pause in which either a singer or a drummer or some other instrument has a solo without the full ensemble. The dancers are supposed to respond in kind before they enter back into the dance with the full music orchestration. 

Dress for a jazz concert can vary more than a classical concert, but often people will dress in a ’40s or ’50s style to fit the era of the music and the dance that is associated with it.

When thinking of genres like pop, rock, and country, at first glance etiquette does not seem to be an aspect of such concerts. There is a certain level of decorum these concerts also require, though. 

1)  Do not be drunk. Music is about engagement and community. While alcohol can help people to loosen up and have a good time, drunken crowds become inwardly focused. 

“If you get too drunk, you’re gonna make it not fun for a lot of other people around you, especially the performers,” Walker said. “If you’re like, ‘oh my gosh, I can’t go to this without being drunk.’ I think that’s the wrong mentality because then you’re only thinking of yourself and not the people around you.”

2) Be respectful of the players. Having fans disrupt the performer’s and their equipment can be rattling and disrespectful. 

“Welcome party my sophomore year, it was beach themed. There were these four foot beach balls, and someone threw like five of them onto the crowd mosh pit area, and then they were hitting them up in the air, and they were falling on us and knocking over mic stands,” Walker said. “So that’s an example of ‘well maybe let’s not do that’ because we have to be able to function on stage.”

3) Show enjoyment in the music. When the performers see the audience truly engaging in the music, it can bring them satisfaction. 

“It’s my job, to have fun on stage and to bring you fun,” Walker said. “And when I see that you’re having fun, I’m also going to have more fun.” 

While etiquette across musical genres may have different elements, they still necessitate a degree of civility and engagement.