What It Really Means to ‘Feel the Music’
Most all of us have been told, at some time or another, that ‘you’ve just got to feel the music.’ Now, I don’t know about you, but on the occasions I’ve had this said to me I felt more confused than enlightened.
You see, many teachers, who more likely than not possess a rather limited teaching vocabulary, resort to such statements when they run out of things to say. In such cases a better alternative would be the more honest statement, ‘I don’t know what to tell you.’
It’s much different to feel music as a listener, which is a emotional response, than it is to EXPRESS music as a player. A player must have tools with which to translate the emotions he or she might feel as a listener into physical sensations and actions taken on the violin.
In fact it is just this complex dance that makes playing the violin one of the most challenging things to do; one of the most engrossing things to do; and ultimately one of the most satisfying things to do.
So you’ve got to have technique.
So how do you get technique. Well, you get technique by feeling, actually.
‘Now, wait just a doggone moment,’ you say. ‘You just said before that being told to ‘feel the music’ made you confused. Now you’re as bad as the teachers you just talked about.’
Hang on, hang on, I’m talking about feeling in a very different way. I’m talking about taking the time to FEEL THE PROCESS of playing the music, not the feelings that arise out of the music BEING PLAYED.
You see, the feelings that arise from the music are based on past events. The feelings of process HAPPEN IN THE MOMENT.
This is why many violinists get stuck in their playing. Either out of lack of patience, lack of focus, or lack of knowledge, they try to jump into the future – the LA-LA land of emotional feeling.
It’ll never work.
And similarly, when someone says, ‘you’re thinking too much.’ It can only mean ‘you’re thinking wishfully,’ which is not really thinking at all.
It’s daydreaming.
Nobody’s playing EVER suffered from an over abundance of ‘process thinking.’ Process thinking is about visualization and intention. It’s about discipline and self-direction.
If you’re still with me, let me say one more thing about all this. Most of us do need direction. We need help figuring out What to Feel and What to Think to play effectively.
After all, I spent 3 years chasing Milstein around the world for just such help.
Fortunately for you there’s a better alternative. Specifically in the form of the instructional DVD courses I’ve created for you.
And the latest of these is a terrific, new monthly program of study for lower intermediate players. Just yesterday my web master put a whole blurb on the website about it. Why not take a look. It may be just what you need to break through to a whole new level of playing.
All the best,
Clayton Haslop
P.S. And don’t forget. If you’re in the very beginning stages of playing there’s the Violin Mastery Beginners Circle. Because getting started on the right foot sure beats the alternative.
