This may seem to be question of individuality of a performer, but how does one really put emotion into a piece?

My music teacher tells me i need to put emotion into my playing, that i play like a scientist, never makes a mistake, always technical but no real emotion.

My question is, how do i put emotion into music? My teacher describes it as the extra "Haa" of the piece, but i can't seem to figure out how to really "feel" the music. Technically, i excel in my pieces, but she says i need to work on the interpretation and emotion.

By the way, I play the violin (if this helps to answer.) To any violinists or any other performers:
1) Any recommendations?
2) Would using expressive intonation help in performances?

Many Thanks!

I'd say, sit back and let someone else play it

When I was 14 I was doing grade 8, and my teacher told me that I wouldn't be able to put emotion into my playing until I'd had my heart broken!!!!!!

violinist1005,
Just play , just 'listen' the music you are playing ...
When you drive a car , do you drive it or does it drive you ? Similarly , you should drive your music..

Wow, i never really thought about it that way. I'll try it. Thanks a lot

Anytime! Enjoy playing.

I'll remember that one!

Seriously, it's a good point. If you've had your heart broken, you can draw on the experience to make those tragic, minor-key works really plunge the depths of despair. Stop and think what the composer's trying to portray - can you relate this to anything you've experienced? Or at least read in a book or seen on a film?

Try reading around the composer and the work as well, and don't overlook the obvious things like the title - if it's a lullaby, imagine you're trying to rock a baby to sleep.

violinist1005, I don't know how old you are, but as you grow older, the range of experiences and your emotional reaction to them will probably enhance your playing. It took me years to "get" the second movement of the Finzi Clarinet Concerto, but something just clicked one winter's day when I was out in the garden sweeping leaves and it started to snow - the bleakness of it all matched the music perfectly, and I often think back to it when the Finzi concerto is on my music stand (to add to this, I later discovered that Finzi was a great Hardy fan, and the bleakness of that winter morning in the garden also matches some of the winter chapters of Tess of the d'Urbevilles - but without the marital complications!). At a warmer extreme, there's something about the first movement of the Saint-Saens clarinet sonata that just brings to mind warm summer evenings in the south of France drinking Chateauneuf-du-Papes. OK, I've waffled on about clarinet repertoire rather than violin repertoire, but I hope you understand what I mean.

It might be worth listening to see if you can hear what others feel in a piece, too, by listening to recordings. Despair is certainly one emotion, but there are many others - a piece I played recently was described as "noble" by my examiner, some are graceful (not quite an emotion, I know...), some passionately crossed in love, some fulfilled in love, some tender, some angry, some cheery or even flippant, some silly-funny, some clever-funny. If you detect those sorts of feelings in the music you play, try thinking of these as you do the technical stuff. My last exam piece in summer had a final movement which could be seen to be rather tongue-in-cheek, like a bit of a joke on the end of something more serious - my teacher showed me where to put just the tiniest pauses to demonstrate the idea, and that helped to pull the movement (and thereby the whole piece) together. Beware though of overdoing things - it is possible to put in sooooo much feeling that you can actually lose sight of the music, and spoil it. It is very true that the simple passage of time and the ups and downs of life will give you more emotional range to draw on, but that shouldn't mean that younger folks can't do the extra "Haaa" factor - time and again we hear kids who can.

Imagery...think of what the music means to you, and create stories and vistas around it.

Also listen to a lot of music and feel what they do.

I got into an interesting discussion about this very subject on a violinists' website a few months back. Some people were saying you need to be actually feeling the emotion as you play for the emotion to be conveyed; others said no, no, no! And that if you do that your playing will go all over the place; you need to stay detached but know the exact techniques to express the exact emotions you want to express.

To me that sounded a bit clinical - and would lead to a performance lacking real depth, but on the other hand you can't feel an emotion to order and if you have to play the piece over and over again there's no way you can feel the emotion each time.

And yet - surely the best thing is to know the techniques required to express what you want to express, but be open to actually feeling the emotion at the time you're performing it, for added depth and meaning.

Your teacher should be able to help you with the necessary techniques. Then playing the piece the right way may actually generate the feelings in you, which hopefully will make you play even better as long as you don't lose focus.

Two violinists spring to mind - Milstein and Kreisler. Milstein believed you had to be completely dispassionate and create the emotion with your technique alone. Kreisler got completely swept away with the emotion of a piece as he played it and you can practically hear him sob with the violin - or jump for joy. Both are an acquired taste, but the violinist the audience really went wild for was Kreisler.

Violinia

Just an encouragement - if you're playing piece technically well, it's a good start - you have a firm basis of technique on which to build your music.

Have a listen to the music you're playing - what does it make you feel? What does it remind you of? What kind of images come to your mind.

IMO, and it depends on the person etc, thinking "oh, a little expressive intonation here, a little vibrato there" etc is not the way to go - if you can really get into the music, and you've good technique, you can develop the musical instincts to use "expressive intonation" and other such things where it seems right to get the effect you wish, rather than necessarily scientifically sitting down and deciding which "emotional technique" you will use where.

Have you come across the book "The Inner Game of Music"? I seem to recall it has some good ideas for practising pieces in ways that improve your expression, ie I seem to recall: playing a piece with no vibrato, playing it with loads of vibrato, and then playing it and only adding vibrato when you felt the music was really crying out for it.

I think The Practice Revolution has some ideas for performance, too; quite expensive but you might find someone who can lend you a copy.

Your teacher said it:



That's a great start. You can play it in your sleep. Now you can start experimenting.

Simply pretend you're seeing the music for the first time -and IGNORE the dynamics and other signs.

Have fun. Play it how you feel it should be played. Try loud, soft, fast, slower etc. Play minor keys in a happy way or make it jazzy. Mess around with the rythm.

Of course, if you're taking exams or playing in an ensemble you may have to follow the markings on the page - but there's nothing at all to stop you experimenting.

Try exaggerating the p & f markings. Much much louder, then really soft - and take it from there.

When you've had fun with it, try following the composer's markings, but put some of 'yourself' into it.

Steve (Who once discovered Mozart sounds pretty cool when played with a jazzy rythm)

One idea that worked for me:

Imagine that the music is going to be used as the backing music for a scene in a movie.

What sort of scene is it? What happens in the scene? Who are the actors?

Try and visualise the scene as you play the music, and play it to match what you're visualising.

I am a TV and movies person.
When I play, I'll imagine I am a certain character in the TV and movies.
However, if the music appeals to me, I'll be myself.

I feel that the printed music on a score is directly comparable to the printed words of a poem on a page. What is there in black and white gives just the basic outline of what the composer/poet wants to be played/spoken, and the rest is up to the performer.

If one takes the poem as an example, there is a world of difference between an average young child reciting those words in the classroom 'parrot-fashion' and an experienced actor, who would be 'placing' the words carefully with a view to getting the most natural and telling effect out of them, using subtle emphasis, differing dynamic levels, tiny pauses etc, so that the poem really came to life through his voice.

It's the same with music - we are given the bare bones of what to do, and it's up to us to bring it to life. It usually becomes fairly obvious what one should be doing with the piece if one sings the phrases to oneself - I often find that a pupil who has played a phrase in a rather mechanical style can immediately tell the difference when reminded how one would probably sing that same phrase!

I wondered whether there is also another way of seeing this... perhaps someone has already said it

might it be that you should be Getting The Emotion OUT of the Music? What emotions and feelings are in there....
How can you get that out of the music and convey it to your listeners?

Guess you need to get to the point of knowing 'the notes' really really well, then playing the music - squeezing the emotion out of it.

Well, not a lot I can add to the others, but most of it good advice.
Might it help tofind out more about the piece, and the circumstances it was written. The composer might be going through a really happy time of his life, or might be in the throes of despair. But probably the best thing is to listen to more than one recording, and spot the odd slight tenuto, or emphasis of a note or whatever. But thee are just ideas - in the end your interprtation has to be your own, not someone elses.

I think there has to be a line between drawing out the emotion which is in the music itself and imposing your own emotion onto the music. The composer's emotion should be the be all and end all, I think.

As somebody who used to try to persuade students to consider a piece of music as far more than just the notes, I think any or all of the following would help:

A knowledge of the composer's personal situation at the time of composition (e.g. Suk's 'Asrael' Symphony)
Any special circumstances surrounding the piece (e.g. Finzi's Cello Concerto, Mozart's 'Abendempfindung')
A working knowledge of theory and which chords/dissonances/suspensions/formal tricks/silences might have an emotional significance which could be pointed out (e.g. the unexpected diminished 7ths in Mozart's A minor piano sonata, 1st mvt, K.310; so many moments in Beethoven where you think he's heading in one direction, but...)
Trial and error

Crucially, though, I think emotion in performance should be understated and subtly implied rather than broadly painted, but that's only my personal view. It can be communicated through dynamics, vibrato (not for pianists, though), and - very effectively, I think - by ever so slight gives and takes in the tempo. Ask a good organist how they perform accents, and you'll see what I mean. As Violinia implies, you need to be like a good actor, inhabiting an emotion without letting it override your performance. You don't have to be mad to play Lear etc...

In addition, you should listen to loads of performances of anything, and find out what fires your imagination, but be prepared to return to the same piece and think that everything you did previously was wrong! A book such as Deryck Cooke's The Language Of Music is a brilliantly argued, though sometimes disputed guide to how common musical phrases are designed to move us, and how composers exploit them. But remember that interpretation tends to be a journey rather than a destination.

Finally, Toscanini (I think) said it wasn't the notes, but the space between the notes which mattered.
...and having your heart broken will help.

Sorry if this repeats any previous posts.

I'll not repeat the excellent advice and opinions given in previous posts.

However, one of my piano pupils (15 years old) has been coming to me for 4 years now. We are well into the Grade 8 and beyond repetoire, and she has a wonderful feeling for jazz arrangements.........at least she does NOW.
When she first came to me she played very accurately and learnt new pieces VERY quickly. However, at now only 15 years old she has grasped the concept of "emotion/expression" well.

I began this by giving her a series of overtly descriptive pieces to which she attaches a scenario in her mind, and plays out this scenario through her music.
"Grandma Tells a Ghost Story" by Kullack (?) was an obvious choice, and she soon gave a most atmospheric performance, which gained her full marks in the exam.

At the moment, Leibestraume is the current piece, and we have discussed the "scene" unveiling throughout....often with much laughter (with respect to the piece, of course)

Young lady dreams of her lover etc., little bit of a heated discussion ensues as to who forgot to pay a bill, and then they make up again, and as for the last page.........!!!
All this is done with Mother (hers, not mine ) in the room, I might add, who enjoys the whole proceedings.

Well, whatever, she has won local "Young Musician of the Year" comps more times than I can remember, so .......it works.

I do tend to be an "OTT" teacher when it comes to these matters, but it gets results.

True! It's also worth considering: Does the performer have to have an idefineable extra quality to deliver an emotional preformance, or does the emotion/expression naturally emrge from the music if all the technicalities are in place, thus illiciting an emotional response from the player and audience as they listen? I would argue that it is really quite impossible to capture the atmosphere of the music without the technicalities being in place, and that this is about 90% of the battle. But I don't just mean notes and timing; I mean things like the physical ability to play cantabile in one hand (if it's piano), the ability to manage a sudden diminuendo, or to produce depth from the bass without going OTT, an ornament that doesn't sound forced (i.e. is an ormament rather than a dominant feature) being able to accentuate the important notes without overdoing it, knowing how to use rubato - and, in fact, knowing what the important notes actually are, which will involve a "feel" for approaching modulations, and knowing which notes are affecting/producing the key change. To simply attempt to get into an appropriate emotional state before playing is not enough. Once all the technicalities appropriate to the piece are mastered, that is when the performer can relax into the performance and "feel" the emotion as he/she goes along.

I agree about not being OTT, but I also think that a lot of people need to feel they are being OTT before the emotion and expression really starts to come out. Depends on the instrument too I guess, but it's easy to think you're doing wonderful dynamics and playing expressively only for others to hear very little variation - to extend the poetry analogy, one of the skills of reading something out is not going too fast and letting the words and phrases have space - it's very difficult to judge and for inexperienced readers, what feels like quite a natural pace will often be quite fast, and what sounds quite natural and comfortable to a listener may feel painfully slow to the reader.

I personally think there should be a balance between bringing out the emotions from the music, and having a personal response which may manifest itself. After all we're all different, and will react differently to the same piece of music, so I think our interpretations should have both what the composer put there but also our own personal stamp, if that makes sense - and in an ideal world!

A recent quote from VFV

"If you're playing only for yourself and are expressing only yourself, you're going to get it 95 percent wrong," he said. "What I really love about this [Beethoven concerto] recording is that I don't recognize myself. It's another level of musicianship when you try to obstruct your own personality in music and emotions of daily life.

"I spend lots of time on recording and I listen and think `It's me, it's me, it's me' -- until I give in and I feel that there's something else."

thinking a little more about this one...I remember going to hear Antonini playing - one of the pieces he performed was Telemann's Suite in a minor for treble recorder, and I was so put off by his exaggerated movements that I had to shut my eyes to listen! Afterwards I went to meet him - my husband had tuned the harpsichord for the performance, and we know the harpsichordist who was playing, too. I was very surprised when Antonini started to talk about the emotions present in the overture of the suite, which starts with a slow majestic passage, then has a central fast bit and a recap. His take on the emotions to be found in that was totally different from what I'd found in it - he'd found tragedy in sections I'd seen as being slightly humerous and tongue-in-cheek. I think that is one of the wonderful things about music - they may not always be only one emotion to draw on in interpretation, so you have many possibilities, and a chance to shape things many different ways. That can suit your style of playing and allow you to bring out the best of it, and make it your own interpretation. I listen to recordings to see what others have found - not necessarily to copy, but to help me to decide what I think is there.

Great advice you've got up to now. Here's mine: Does the piece have a title you could put words to? Even if it doesn't, think about the kind of music you are playing. Eg. if it's romantic music, think of it as a love song and try and put words to it so it really means something personally to you. I do this all the time with my pupils, although at first it's usually me who writes the words until they grow in confidence. It definitely works, as even some of the younger players are putting lovely expression into their music. Quite a number of them tell me that they can hear my words whilst they are playing, which has helped them a lot. I might add that I'm a piano teacher, but I did used to play the violin up to Grade 7 and it worked on that as well. Good luck and let go!

I disagree, i think that getting your fingers in the right places at the right time is only half the battle. Music means nothing without emotion. It rarely 'naturally' emerges if you only have the technicalities in check. A professional musician will play a grade 3 piece much better than an 8 year old who can also play it perfectly. Why? Because the 8 year old will not be able to express as much emotion or musical ideas as the professional musician.

I think its true that as you grow older, you have more experiences to draw on, therefore, being able to put more depth into your music. Composers compose to convey their feelings, it helps if you know the background of the piece, e.g, Beethoven wrote his Grande Sonate Pathetique when he just started to go deaf. Immediately from that, you know that in the piece, there is tragedy, pain, passion, longing. I believe its better to actually feel the emotion/ideas instead of learning the technicalities to play the emotion. Really believe and feel what you are playing, sing/cry for the composer and let them be heard while adding your own touch. Be able to see and describe what the piece is.

Painters paint their pictures on canvas, but musicians paint their pictures on silence.
-Leopold Stokowski

That's a great quotation, and will be food for thought for my pupils tonight! I do see what you're saying, and I know what you mean. However both painters and musicians need to have the proper tools and skills at their disposal in order to make something of the canvas or the silence. Let's take the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, for instance. The title wasn't given by Beethoven, but that's irrelevant; the music conveys to us the haunting atmosphere of a moonlit night. I would say that we all know what we're trying to achieve in playing this, but it won't neccessarily be the person with the clearer image of moonlight in their mind who will be the one to convey the atmosphere better. It will be the one who can produce a combination of clarity and cantabile at pp, along with subtle use of rubato - ie the one who has the correct tools and expertise for the job.

I put that very sentiment on another board and was heartily disagreed with by a number of professional musicians there. Milstein was quoted - according to them he thought playing with any emotion at all was self-indulgent and that you needed an armoury of technical methods for inducing exactly the right effect. Milstein was an awesome player so I was stumped for an answer!

In the end the point we all agreed on was that there's a place you can reach when you're playing; it's sometimes called 'the zone'. You can only reach it when you're completely technically on top of the piece so can free your mind from the technicalities. Then, if all the circumstances are right, something else takes over and the music plays through you - I can't think of any other way to describe it. It's not emotion - you're not feeling emotional yourself because that can only detract from the performance - in fact you're feeling something more subtle than emotion; you're getting close to the essence of the music itself. I get a bit stuck for words here but it's impossible to describe but I'm sure many here will have experienced it.

The trouble with wanting to feel a particular emotion in order to play a piece a certain way is that emotions are notoriously difficult to pin down and feel when you want to. You could be coming up to a certain passage that you think needs a certain emotion - and the emotion just isn't there! You feel completely blank! Probably because you've played the same piece so many times you've become a bit immune to the feelings it originally inspired, or something. Or your emotional responses are just being a bit contrary that day. In other words, if the emotion arises and you can play well at the same time, all well and good, but if it doesn't you've still got to have a few tricks up your sleeve.

To be so well-rehearsed and relaxed that you can easily slip into 'the zone' is the best way to be, but you can't even depend on that - it can be elusive.

I remember once I'd had the most terrible day. Managed to get all the band's equipment stuff locked in somewhere overnight and because the next day was a Saturday the caretaker was nowhere to be found. I also had a terrible hangover and because of a late night followed by anxiety about the equipment, had barely had a wink of sleep. And that evening I had to play at a prestigious jazz festival for the first time and had so wanted to feel right... yes yes I should have stayed sober the night before but it was a party and I'd got carried away.

Consequently spend the day wandering around feeling worse than a dog's dinner and didn't even manage to locate the caretaker until 5.00pm which was just before we had to leave.

And then would you believe it, the moment we walked into the venue at the jazz festival I slipped straight into 'the zone', stayed in it all evening and played really well - the whole thing felt completely effortless and sort of magical and sparkly. The only thing I could put it down to looking back was that I was so exhausted and 'washed up' my 'thinking mind', the bit that gets in the way, had gone on vacation, feeing me up for a 'zone experience'.

However, this is not a recommended route! And no doubt it wouldn't work another time.

The best thing is to know your music inside out, be really well-rehearsed and then be able to 'let go'and relax.

Violinia

I'm afraid I can't agree with the top quote at all, and I'm not in agreement with the sentiments implied in the next quote either! I DO agree that there is a requirement for "an armoury of technical methods for inducing exactly the right effect."

Let's go back to the painter/canvass and musician/silence analogy. Let's say the painter is painting a moonlit scene. Some painters will paint a better picture than others - why? It won't be because they have allowed themselves to simply "feel the emotion instead of learning the technicalities" of how to produce light and shade. It's all very well becoming emotional about it, but you need to actually be physically able to do it, or you will end up with a canvass that is nothing but meaningless colour clashes. The painter may think it's moonlight, but will others appreciate it?

The same applies to a pianist playing the Moonlight Sonata. The light and shade cannot be conveyed through emotion alone; the performer may feel it was an emotional performance (and it's possible that others won't dispute the use of the word "emotional" either...), but unless he has a command of the technicalities required, his silence will end up nothing but noise!

P.S. I do heartily agree with the last sentence that I quoted above!

Greetings,

I believe some interesting and good advice can also be found in Madeline Bruser’s book “The art of practicing”, (She is an American Concert Pianist and teacher) and discusses her ten step approach to practicing and performance. One of the steps is very relevant to this topic and is entitled “Tuning into your heart” for anyone who is interested it is well worth a read and details can be found on her website – www.artofpracticing,com

The chapter (step 3) describes how various people play above themselves when experiencing specific emotions and advises on several methods to enable one to tune in or tap into their emotions, (at the very least it calms you down). One of the methods involves thinking about how fragile life is, how lucky we are to be able to play and enjoy music and how so suddenly it all can be taken away from us – She suggests that we do not dwell excessively on morbid, painful topics. Just to reflect on how precious life is to realise that we may not be here tomorrow.

“When you reflect on the impermanence of life, you feel the heart area of your chest open up – it feels warm. Once your heart is open, it is available for whatever activity you engage in. The warmth quickly floods your system. Your body feels more relaxed and fluid inside and your movements become more gentle and precise…The energy of your heart fuels your actions”.

Isn't it to do with all these things?
You need the technique to handle your instrument and play the music, you need feeling for what the composer wrote, you need flair to be able to convey what you understand in the music, you need to be confident and all of this should come across as a Performance with emotion, music, beauty....

Hang on a minute - that quote: wasn't mine, it was Alias's!

But yes you're right Saxfan, it's all of it.

Violinia

ok, sorry if I am attributing quotes wrongly, I don't always get that technicality right!!

But the whole thing of playing and interpreting is in a sense quite simple, but on the other hand it is horrendously complex!!

It's okay, don't worry about; quoting is somewhat fiddly... .

Today, I was upset in my flute lesson, as my teacher had told me she wouldn't be teaching me as of January. I then played the Bach E major movement 1 flute sonata, which really needs expression, and I played it so much better than how I normally would have been.

Have you tried recording yourself, it might help to listen to how you play, and so how you can improve.

Also, I think musicality comes with time, it won't just happen overnight.

I always find it helpful to sit with my eyes shut when playing on my violin, and then all the concentration compleltely becomes more focused on your ears and arms. And you can just hear the beautiful tone, and i suppose that brings emotion. Just try practising with your eyes shut...

Try playing something such as Schindler's list, because that's an incredibly immense and emotional.

And also, try to vary the speed of your vibrato, and really make your vibrato, so that it suits the music to how YOU want it to sound.

Funny you should mention Schindlers List. I was asked to play it at the funeral of an old Jewish refugee lady last year. Every time I practised it I'd practically burst into tears so was wondering how I'd get through it at the funeral without falling apart. Come the day and possibly because I'd practised it too much, there was no emotion there at all - I felt completely blank! Aargh! I didn't know which was worse - feeling all that emotion and having tears splash all over the violin etc, or feeling nothing. Something in between would have been nice...

Anyway, at the reception and after rather a lot of champagne (the old lady's request), they asked me to play it again and this time all the emotion was there. Probably didn't play it any differently either time but it felt a lot better inside the second time..

Conclusion - emotions just don't do what you want when you want them to!

Violinia

Off on a slight tangent here - I often find that absorbing myself in playing music of a strictly classical nature is a great way to escape from emotions that I'd rather not have.

Yes - I do that a lot!!

Wow, Schindler's List. Would you believe i have that on my stand now to work on. I saw the video of Perlman playing Schindler's List Theme on YouTube and it was amazing. That's what made me want to learn that piece. But i'm still trying to get the emotion (of course) but it really is a highly emotional piece which i think can help me develop emotional playing.

Have you ever heard a piece called 'Meditation' (from Thais) by Massenet? It's a very emotional piece and definitely worth learning if you're OK playing in high postions. You can play some of it in low postions too though without quite the same effect.

Violinia

Why yes, i do know that piece and have the score. It really is a beautiful piece. High positions are no problem. I may start it in a few weeks after i get my G6 theory out of the way next week saturday.

High postions, low postions, what's a postion between friends?

Methinks I need to double-check a bit more

Violinia

OOH.. ooh.. can GC have a postion too?

Pretty please-ly,
GC

I absolutley adore Mediataion.
It was the one piece that made me want to start playing again.

I heard it performed at a concert at the Bridgewater Hall by my now teacher and it made me cry !
Just knew I had to play it.

As for the origional topic, I find confidence an issue. I'm fine playing in our orchestra and even move a little and also at home I'm more relaxed and put more into playing. But in lessons, I'm really concious of adding any feeling, movement or emotion.

I think I feel emabarassed ! I'm probably worrying that my teacher thinks I look silly !

Fee

Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't always double-check!

Violinia

PS Gave up yoga recently because I couldn't always get into the absolutley correct mediataion postion - I'm taking up dinging instead. ('dinging' was one of my typos last week)

I think about what feelings are meant to come through as I play...

Love Meditation, my violinist friend was playing it, but always used to call it Mediation

Violinia

Whoops, I missed out "I always used to call it Mediation"

I'm such an idiot, haha!