Concert Coughing...

[djealnla]

is annoying.

What should be done about it?

[musicluvr49]

Maybe you could take a cough drop before the performance? But that doesn't always help, so if you do happen to cough.. keep playing !
Last year I had a recital... and right in the middle of it, I sneezed. I won't go into details.... but it wasn't a pretty sight.
Anyway,  the point is that I didn't skip a beat, Annoying as it was.

[djealnla]

Maybe you could take a cough drop before the performance? But that doesn't always help, so if you do happen to cough.. keep playing !
Last year I had a recital... and right in the middle of it, I sneezed. I won't go into details.... but it wasn't a pretty sight.
Anyway,  the point is that I didn't skip a beat, Annoying as it was.

My post was actually a complaint about coughing people in audiences.

[musicluvr49]

My post was actually a complaint about coughing people in audiences.

Ahhh... Haha.

Well all I can say about that is ignore it. That never really bothers me, because I'm always practicing with a lot of noise around me. Maybe try practicing the piano in a place that is not very quiet?
Also when I'm playing the piano, I'm usually not very affected by noises around me, so just try to stay in "The Zone" while you're practicing.

Hope this helps a bit.

[birba]

That's what I thought it was!  And then I read those posts and I thought how dumb I was, because, of course, there's NOTHING you can do about coughing in the audience.  But I have noticed that the more intense the presence and playing of the pianist is, the less noise you have in the audience.  I remember Michelangeli in the huge huge vatican auditorium (5,000+spectators) and you could have heard a pin drop.

[djealnla]

And then I read those posts and I thought how dumb I was, because, of course, there's NOTHING you can do about coughing in the audience.

Unless...

https://www.npr.org/blogs/ablogsupreme/2011/01/18/133034656/ahem-stray-thoughts-on-coughing-during-a-keith-jarrett-concert

[birba]

But I wonder if all that coughing - and there must have been a lot of it - came from those listeners who are habitués of other venues, like night clubs and jazz events.  And camera flashes?  This doesn't sound like the norm.  He should have pulled a Nina Simone.  She would have turned around and said "If you  white s. of a b's, don't shut your f..... mouths I'm going to walk right  off this f..... stage!"  I bet THAT would have commanded the silence he deserved!

[furtwaengler]

I try to keep cough drops with me when I go to a concert. Not because it helps my cough...I think the flavor sweetens my breath, which one cannot be too cautious about. A good method is to slowly and carefully unwrap the cough drop, or I like peppermints too...unwrap it in such a way that it slowly bends and is pulled, is moved back and forth between the fingers yet does not open for the entire duration of Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude, and finally in that space of silence before the applause, yank it open. Oh I'm tired...

[birba]

 

[minor9th]

We all have to cough from time to time, but I really hate those who make no attempt to stifle their coughs and just let phlegm-ridden ones rip out--usually in a quiet passage!

[djealnla]

We all have to cough from time to time, but I really hate those who make no attempt to stifle their coughs and just let phlegm-ridden ones rip out--usually in a quiet passage!

Well, this is where we differ. If you happen to be sick, then you shouldn't attend any concert; simple as that. I pay money to hear music, and I find the presence of sick and noisy people at a great concert very offensive.

[richard black]

No, come on, everyone gets the odd random tickle now and then, quite unexpectedly. The trick is simply to muffle it with a tissue, sleeve, coat, even your fingers - the annoying people are the ones who can't be bothered making any effort to stifle it. I find them far more annoying when I'm in the audience than when I'm playing, incidentally. I think murdering coughers is fair, but it does risk making rather more noise than the cough when they emit that blood-curdling scream (like people always do in movies when they get murdered - so it must be right, yes?).
 

[minor9th]

Well, this is where we differ. If you happen to be sick, then you shouldn't attend any concert; simple as that. I pay money to hear music, and I find the presence of sick and noisy people at a great concert very offensive.

I absolutely think sick people should stay home, but as RB pointed out, one doesn't have to be sick to cough. I occasional swallow "wrong" and end up with quite a coughing fit, though luckily not at a concert yet!

[ch101]

That's what I thought it was!  And then I read those posts and I thought how dumb I was, because, of course, there's NOTHING you can do about coughing in the audience.  But I have noticed that the more intense the presence and playing of the pianist is, the less noise you have in the audience.  I remember Michelangeli in the huge huge vatican auditorium (5,000+spectators) and you could have heard a pin drop.

exactly. everyone knows how perfect michelangeli demands for the conditions to be. he puts his piano in this refrigerated car or something. if the temperature is not right he refuses to perform. nobody would ever get more professional then him i don't think.