When did you start to "feel the music?"

[randmc]

A few of my friends (who are 13, 14, and 15) always call me wierd when I am playing the piano. Sometimes I just go into this different world, a musical world, when I am playing pieces. I don't think my friends understand that I really love the music and I will get in to it sometimes.
I notice that when they play the piano, they just play. They don't put any feel or expression into the pieces. I think they just play, to play. Or maybe they play to impress non-musical folk with their expressionless, boring, loud, and annoying fast pieces. For some reason, they associate fast with skill or level. They only play fast parts of pieces because they think the slow parts are dumb (kind of like Liberace, except he didn't play the slow parts because he didn't want to bore the crowd).
So anyways, what does it mean? If you don't "feel the music" does that mean you do not have a love, or passion for it? Does it mean you really don't want to play that instrument? Is there a popular age at which musicians start to "feel the music?" I know that most kids don't "feel the music", so this question is mainly directed towards adults.

[Floristan]

Well, this adult started feeling the music when he was three.  Some of my earliest memories are of sitting under the piano while my oldest sister played, and being enveloped in the sound.  I think exposure at a young age may help, and I would guess my story isn't unique.  I think many people who go on to have music become an integral part of their lives were exposed to music while children.

I know when I'm talking to someone who feels music the way I do, and we're not an uncommon group, but there are also a lot of people who play piano superbly who do not feel music the way I do.  I don't honestly know what their experience of music is.  I just know it's not the same as mine.   I used to think mine was the "real" musical experience, and that people who didn't feel the music the way I do were not somehow authentic and certainly not musical.  Now I mostly think my experience is my experience. 

[ted]

I know exactly what you mean. In my case "feeling the music" occurred ahead of all my technical abilities, so things were the other way around from the people you describe. I cannot remember not "feeling the music", even when listening as a small child. Where I lagged behind was in being able to unify technique and "feeling the music" into one working entity. I am embarrassed to say that I don't think this synthesis happened in full until my late twenties.

[apion]

I can only "feel" music which I love very much (ie, my favorite, most beloved compositions).

[cfortunato]

I have "felt the music" for as long as I can remember, and I remember being considered odd because of my intensity on the subject when I was 5.

As for feeling vs. speed and technique, both are important, but technique can be learned; feeling can't.  One is practice; the other is talent.

[lau]

On my 3rd year of piano. When I was in 5th grade about 11 years old. Dang.

Best Slob,

Lau Chan