To me some of the sounds we hear today online and elsewhere lack one key component: emotion! When was the last time you trolled Youtube looking  for someone playing the current piece you are working on with your music instructor? Yeah, for me, it was today. Personally, I was just looking for a general idea of how the violin piece “Polish Dance” by Edmund Severn is supposed to sound. Lo and behold, the first video I clicked on, the violinist playing the piece was decent. I mean she hit most of the correct notes and the rhythm was correct. However, she had that I’m a serious musician look. When did playing music become a chore to people? Where’s the fun!?

Music is supposed to be fun. Music is supposed to be emotional, to take on a life and breadth of its own. So where did this mentality of just play the correct pitches and rhythms come from? Is this our music teachers fault? That they seem to just focus on the playing the right note at the right time. I say the answer to this question is both yes and no.

On the yes side, public music school teachers have to deal with their states local department of education that has set of prescribed knowledge and skills that every child has to come out knowing. One of these standards relates to performance i.e. playing the correct note at the correct time. Public teachers have a long list of what they have to teach/develop in children. Time to talk about emotional playing and to develop emotional playing gets lost in the shuffle.

On the no side, playing the right note at the right time is a fundamental musical skill. Every musician needs this skill or else group playing would sound really bad. But what happens afterward? Yes we have created music, but without the emotion all music begins to sound the same. Emotion is what separates a good musician from a great one!

So remember to put some emotion in your playing, and to show that you are having a good time. Wooden playing to me is boring playing. Those little black notes on the staff are only a guideline!