How is the best way to get your emotions out when you play?

[giannalinda]

So people can "Feel the music". I have a hard time with this.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Abbey

[aslanov]

seeing as how your 11, i'd say your main problem is having emotions in the first place for those really hard pieces you wanna tackle, sorabji was it?

[db05]

Listen to a lot of emo and cut yourself. Watch the fingers, though.

[anne126]

seeing as how your 11, i'd say your main problem is having emotions in the first place for those really hard pieces you wanna tackle, sorabji was it?

?

Imagine! A human without emotion!

So people can "Feel the music". I have a hard time with this.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Abbey

Some suggestions.,—Study the score. Look for notations and accents which help in understanding the intention of the composer, which is usually not too difficult (great composers, such as Beethoven, constantly write how the performer should play). There are composers however that are more difficult to understand; playing a composer like Mozart, for instance, who used very few notations (for example, he never wrote the term "espressivo" in any of his sonata manuscripts—Haydn however, did—even though he might have meant this).

Otherwise, my advice is to simply practice/play pieces that you enjoy. The "emotions" and "feeling" will come to you naturally. :)

[mickeylutz]

Playing with feeling is really difficult. For me, there is more than one way. Sometimes I focus on the emotion I want to convey, other times I let myself flow naturally and let the my hands think for themselves. Play very slowly and put in as much emotion as you can, slowly. Play it again, this time a bit faster. Play legato, then staccato, with petal then without petal. Sit far from the piano or come really close. Sing the melody while you are playing it. Emphasize one hand and then the other. Dance with your upper body. Tune yourself in. Most importantly, do not chastise yourself if it doesn't come out to your liking.

[giannalinda]

thanks that helped and i do have emotions and i willl certainly not become an emo...But other than that....thanks for your suggestions...theyre helping a lot.

[giannalinda]

Playing with feeling is really difficult. For me, there is more than one way. Sometimes I focus on the emotion I want to convey, other times I let myself flow naturally and let the my hands think for themselves. Play very slowly and put in as much emotion as you can, slowly. Play it again, this time a bit faster. Play legato, then staccato, with petal then without petal. Sit far from the piano or come really close. Sing the melody while you are playing it. Emphasize one hand and then the other. Dance with your upper body. Tune yourself in. Most importantly, do not chastise yourself if it doesn't come out to your liking.

thank you mickey this helped a lot

[giannalinda]

Listen to a lot of emo and cut yourself. Watch the fingers, though.

of course im not going to do that db are you crazy? im 11...too young to be an emo and emos are plain wierd...there like gangs except they look really ugly. no offense to the emos...actually...well..never mind that. BUT IM ABSOLUTELY NOT GOING TO BE AN EMO!

[giannalinda]

emos are disgusting!

[ahvat]

for me playing with feelings are fine, but I don't think it is neccessary to play emotionaly when your face are dramatically changing. lolz

[m19834]

I know that one of the main concepts of music is that it is meant as a vehicle to express humanity and to express human emotions.  And, it can be felt by a listener if the performer is "feeling the music" or not when they play. 

However, I don't think it is what it seems.  In my experience so far, the times where I actually felt something inside of me in a kind of powerful way when playing, it wasn't so much that I set out to feel something and then tried my darndest to express that through what I was playing.  There is probably a place for that, depending on the level of experience (perhaps) the performer has with the art. 

But, what I have experienced as actually feeling the music was more like a kind of resonation within me to whatever was/is happening outside of me.  A few times I have played something in my meetings with my mentor where I had not necessarily set out to express a particular emotion, but rather a particular musical idea or sound, and suddenly I found myself having a kind of reaction to what I was doing.  It was as though what I was playing resonated within me in a particular way that it in some cases did cause a strong emotional response, or touched anyway some pool within me that was already there, bringing it to my consciousness.

By accident I have sometimes touched upon this in improvisation, but I could never consciously figure out how to do it on demand.  I don't know that I could/should expect that I will always feel this kind of resonation with what I am playing but, for me, learning more specifically about how to connect with the musical idea sure seems like a step in the right direction.

Also, there was one resonation recently that seemed to tap into a pool of anger.  Yes, I have some anger (I'm working on it).  But, that is not necessarily what the music is expressing in that spot, it's just what my reaction was.  So, as far as expressing *my* emotions there, that is not really my goal.  I want to express what the musical idea is, and that may resonate with me in a particular way (and perhaps in different ways at different times), and perhaps I can use that resonation in the moments of my playing, but I don't *think* the music is truly about whether or not an individual knows what anger feels like.

[rc]

Trying to give words and images to the feelings can help.  I find that difficult, the feelings kind of come spontaniously if I try and be open to it.  Being open to it, I think is also about how we think in the moment - if we're thinking too much about the fingers, keys, theory and analytical aspects, there's not enough bandwidth left to feel it.

Sometimes we can own these feelings and know what we want to express, but the technique isn't second nature enough to be able to not think about about it...  So if we're not well practiced enough, we'll have to think about it, and it won't be able to flow.

Hopefully that makes a bit of sense, heh.

[giannalinda]

I know that one of the main concepts of music is that it is meant as a vehicle to express humanity and to express human emotions.  And, it can be felt by a listener if the performer is "feeling the music" or not when they play. 

However, I don't think it is what it seems.  In my experience so far, the times where I actually felt something inside of me in a kind of powerful way when playing, it wasn't so much that I set out to feel something and then tried my darndest to express that through what I was playing.  There is probably a place for that, depending on the level of experience (perhaps) the performer has with the art. 

But, what I have experienced as actually feeling the music was more like a kind of resonation within me to whatever was/is happening outside of me.  A few times I have played something in my meetings with my mentor where I had not necessarily set out to express a particular emotion, but rather a particular musical idea or sound, and suddenly I found myself having a kind of reaction to what I was doing.  It was as though what I was playing resonated within me in a particular way that it in some cases did cause a strong emotional response, or touched anyway some pool within me that was already there, bringing it to my consciousness.

By accident I have sometimes touched upon this in improvisation, but I could never consciously figure out how to do it on demand.  I don't know that I could/should expect that I will always feel this kind of resonation with what I am playing but, for me, learning more specifically about how to connect with the musical idea sure seems like a step in the right direction.

Also, there was one resonation recently that seemed to tap into a pool of anger.  Yes, I have some anger (I'm working on it).  But, that is not necessarily what the music is expressing in that spot, it's just what my reaction was.  So, as far as expressing *my* emotions there, that is not really my goal.  I want to express what the musical idea is, and that may resonate with me in a particular way (and perhaps in different ways at different times), and perhaps I can use that resonation in the moments of my playing, but I don't *think* the music is truly about whether or not an individual knows what anger feels like.

thanks karl that helped

[giannalinda]

for me playing with feelings are fine, but I don't think it is neccessary to play emotionaly when your face are dramatically changing. lolz

omg ya its necessary to play with emotions! are you crazy?!

[go12_3]

Giannalinda,  
Perhaps you can stomp your feet and scream , that's a good way to let out emotions and frustrations.  Then when you sit and play the piano, your senses will become more clear as your whole being is already revitalized and charged with energy, in a calmer state of mind, maybe, maybe......the emotions  flow from your very inner being.  

best wishes,

go12_3

[giannalinda]

Giannalinda,  
Perhaps you can stomp your feet and scream , that's a good way to let out emotions and frustrations.  Then when you sit and play the piano, your senses will become more clear as your whole being is already revitalized and charged with energy, in a calmer state of mind, maybe, maybe......the emotions  flow from your very inner being.  

best wishes,

go12_3

thanks ill try that..but first ill go into a room where you cant hear anything from the outside and ill scream my head off. and break everything in the room.

[jinr]

Have you ever thought about why it is that some people seem to play so passionately, emotionally, or just plain sound good, and others don't? What is the precise reason behind this? There are alot of different things that go into it; but the one that you need to think about is "bending notes" - playing certain notes just a little bit louder, softer, shorter, or longer than the notes around it.

An example:

Listen carefully here. What are some of the most emotional points of this? At the same time, are there any notes that are played louder than all the notes around them? Are there any times where he crescendos or decrescendos in the space of 2-3 notes ? Now, do you see any link between this and the emotion?

Try this: Pick some piece you think has a very definite emotion. Take a few notes from the melody, and play them in your head. Then try playing them again, but make certain notes louder, softer, etc. Then go to the piano and try making it sound like what you just heard in your head.

[go12_3]

jinr:
So the emotions from playing a piece comes from the actual "bending notes",  I find that an interesting concept.  I did listen to Richter video that you listed here, and there is a definite difference between the loud and the soft notes.  So the emotional points is where the crescendo and decrescendos are in the piece?  What about in a piece which indicates to slow down  or speed up?

 Do the notes usually dictate the emotion of  a piece or through our own interpretation as a pianist?   Where do we actually come to feel what the composer is asking of us to play in a piece, or do we just follow the notations and musical expressions in order for us to make a piece emotional?  Can emotions be the same as interpretation?  Some pianists just play the notes as written, but what about how he feels about the piece he is performing?  I think as we learn a piece, we have to go through the process of the notes, fingering and tempo and so forth.  When we become more familiar with the piece, then we can add the flavor or color to the piece.  As I play a piece, I hear it in my mind, on how it goes whether in some passages it should be played loudly or softly.  Each pianist has their own unique way of interpreting a piece.  The piece at first has a grouping of notes, or notes all over the score, and yet when the pianist learns the piece, and becomes more familiar, the emotions will readily come through with the blending and bending of notes to make this piece  special for the listener.

best wishes,

go12_3 

[communist]

Just make faces; like what Dong-Hyek Lim does.

[go12_3]

Just make faces; like what Dong-Hyek Lim does.

Oh, commi,  LOL  LOL

[jinr]

jinr:
So the emotions from playing a piece comes from the actual "bending notes",  I find that an interesting concept.  I did listen to Richter video that you listed here, and there is a definite difference between the loud and the soft notes.  So the emotional points is where the crescendo and decrescendos are in the piece?  What about in a piece which indicates to slow down  or speed up?

It is hard to put into words effectively; but you have the gist of it. Mess around with this idea as much as you can in anything you can play, and you will figure out how it works.

Do the notes usually dictate the emotion of  a piece or through our own interpretation as a pianist?   Where do we actually come to feel what the composer is asking of us to play in a piece, or do we just follow the notations and musical expressions in order for us to make a piece emotional?  Can emotions be the same as interpretation?  Some pianists just play the notes as written, but what about how he feels about the piece he is performing?

These questions seem ambiguous. What is emotion, and what is interpretation? If you can precisely define these, it could shed some light on these questions.

[go12_3]

jinr:   To explain interpretation is probably more of a cognitive way of finding a meaning of how the music is presented through the score.  It is how we construe the score in a particular way or manner.  So my interpretation of a piece may differ than your interpretation.   Now, emotion is a state of mind in which feelings or attitude is predominant.  Now, if the piece is in a minor key, for instance, the emotion would be interpreted as saddness.  Or another piece may have a combination of passages which may have a slow tempo and then a fast tempo, which in my mind would interpret peacefulness and then agitation, also, could depend upon the chords,  and harmonies mixed in with the piece.  Music shows a variety of feelings -----saddness, joy, elation, depression, agitation and so forth, that a musician does interpret  in his mind.  When he performs the piece, the emotions of that piece ought to be reached to the audience.  I hope this answered your questions.

[db05]

of course im not going to do that db are you crazy? im 11...too young to be an emo and emos are plain wierd...there like gangs except they look really ugly. no offense to the emos...actually...well..never mind that. BUT IM ABSOLUTELY NOT GOING TO BE AN EMO!

Haha lol I was just pulling your leg on that one.

Please be clear, though, if you're asking about feeling the music that you hear while you play, or playing with expression that can be felt by the audience. Although they're both feelings and are connected, they are very different. One is what you feel inside, the other is what others feel from your playing. It is possible to feel your music and not have your audience feel the same way ie. lack of technique to pull it off. Or the other way around, you can fake emotion with your music and even facial expressions.

Assuming that this thread is about your own inner feeling, is it true that you can't feel? Try just listening to songs/ pieces that you like. Why do you like them? Is it because someone told you to, or because they make you feel something? If you don't feel anything from this, better listen to A LOT of music. Try emo for a change. LOL

If it's about letting your audience feel the music, well a very good technique is needed, and not necessarily feeling the music, although it helps. You should have a good idea of what you want, and be able to produce the sound on the piano. Problem is, if the audience doesn't agree or understand your interpretation.

[jinr]

I hope this answered your questions.

They were your questions, not mine! 

[anna_crusis]

So people can "Feel the music". I have a hard time with this.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Abbey

Mostly it's just people pulling faces.