Playing with Emotion

[noroimusha]

Hello guys,

I've been studying piano for a little over a year now, and I've made some good progress; I've almost finished the second of Alfred's Adult piano books and I'm also doing some grade 5 stuff (Little Prelude in C Major by Bach and Beethoven's Sonatina in F Major). My teacher consistently tells me that I'm doing well technically, but that he's not feeling the pieces since I'm not expressing the emotion therein very well and that music is about feeling and not just pressing buttons. I agree with him, but I'm having difficulty communicating the vibes of the music I'm playing. They're not entirely absent, I do know how to play cheerfully, sadly, emphatically, and a few other elementary emotions, but the overall 'oomph' of the pieces I play is lacking. They're certainly not even remotely close to my teacher, but I'd like to improve on my ability to express feelings and communicate emotion through music rather than just getting the technicalities right.

Any advice or tips you could give me on this front?


Thank you,
Noroimusha

[matt_walker]

My students alway say, "It sounds so much better when you play it," but that's just because I've been playing a long time. It's something that'll come with practise. One of the techniques I like to use is imaging I'm singing the melody. It is so much easier to imagine emotion through a voice than piano tone, and I think if you imagine yourself singing the melody (to lah, or nonsense words), you'll be surprised at how you play with the tempo, the dynamics and utilise swells and different finger intensities.

Even now there's a split in piano philosophy regarding whether it's possible to change the piano's tone through touch. All experimental evidence says no; you can only control intensity but not tone, but it's still a big topic 

[hfmadopter]

Entering into the arena of expression is a great sign ! The fact that you know it's missing beyond your teacher telling you it is is the beginning. I suspect from here that you will find ways to make it happen. One thing you will need is a piano that is expressive, meaning well tuned and able to be played lightly or softly and also with volume. Or if you have a digital piano, that it has that capability. Beyond that, expression will come with experience.

[webacademyofmusic]

Give yourself a break! It sounds like you're doing fine. It's many new skills that you're learning all at once, not just 'learning the piano'.

Practice playing just the melody (or even the entire right hand) over and over with as much 'emotion' and dynamics as you can. Then listen to a number of different recordings and then repeat this process many times. Before you know it, you'll be able to pour your heart into it.

Charlie Parker was on to something when he said, "Master your instrument, master the music & then forget all that & just play."

When there's too much going on in your mind, it's more difficult to play from the heart.

[bronnestam]

Practice a lot in your head. Close your eyes and try to hear the music inside you, without touching the piano keys. Don't bother about fingering or any other technical difficulties, just try to enjoy the music. Use your imagination and do not feel any restrictions - this is the song in your ideal world. If you want to add any other sound than just the piano, just do it. A voice singing, for example? Be patient, piano practicing is not always about hitting the keys. You cannot play the song right if you cannot feel it inside first.

If the song is technically difficult, you can play it slowly so that you really get the time to plan your keystrokes in advance. You can play it fast; fine, now play it slowly in order to master the music. 

 

[rjarsenault1101]

I had the same problem. it didn't come to me until like 3 or 4 years into lessons.

[keypeg]

Has your teacher taught you HOW to play with emotion?  Have you learned how to play loud and soft notes?  Crescendo?  Have you been taught about phrasing, putting a small pause here, emphasizing a note there?  We might even hear how it might sound for feeling, but then we also have to know how to produce that sound. 

[j_menz]

I think there are two aspects to this.

Firstly, you need to know what you want the pice to sound like.  This isn't necessarily something that comes naturally. You develop it by listening to other people playing a piece, thinking about what "works" and what doesn't. Going over the piece in your head until you know what you want it to be.  Over time, you get better at that, though it is a lifetime's work.

Secondly, you then need to be able to actually make it sound like that when you play it.  This is a matter of technique, and comparing how what you actually play compares with what you wanted to play. You need to learn to listen to yourself as you go.  Some people also find listening to recordings of their playing helps.

The two aspecs are interrellated, and both need to be developed alongside one another.

Another thing - you need to feel free to play around with what is possible with a piece.  Not in performance, but in practice.  Don't be scared to mess it up. Go overboard! Play it at the wrong tempo, invert the dynamics, make a sad piece happy and vice versa.  It's that playing around that will give you both the interpretative and technical skills needed to ultimately play it your own "right" way; full of emotion.

[keypeg]

Since there is a teacher, doesn't that teacher play any kind of a role?  Does the teacher just say "play expressively"?  Or does he show how to do it?

[slobone]

I agree with keypeg, at your level, your teacher shouldn't be telling you to play with emotion, he/she should be teaching you how to do that! Expression in classical music begins with phrasing, and that has to be taught. It's not too early for you to start, but you're basically going to be working on phrasing for the rest of your life.

I also agree with Matt Walker, in that the goal of phrasing is to make the piano -- a mechanical contraption made of metal wire, springs, wood, felt, leather, etc -- sound like the human voice. But don't just imagine singing a melody, actually sing it! Even if you're not a great singer, sing the melody out loud. Your natural breathing will bring out the high and low points, the ups and down, of the melody, so it has a definite shape and also an organic unity. Then try to play what you just heard.

And don't forget "melody" in classical music doesn't just mean the top line. A lot of the time the left hand is also playing a melody, even if it's not as prominent as the melody in the right hand. In Bach, of course, all the voices are equally important.

[banof]

First of all. You have to love it. (im not saying your not, but you just have to really want to play the piece and so on...) Second, you cant stress about it. You can't try to consciously think
"I Need To Play It With Emotion!"
Just relax and try to infuse some of your own feelings about the piece into it (if that makes sense).

For example if playing prelude in C sharp Minor by Rachmaninoff (according to the story of the scary as hell dream he had) Put yourself in his position. Walking sadly, slowly, fearfully, and try to hear that in your music.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY.
It comes with time.
A five year old cant tell a sad story he heard about the holocaust, as much as a survivor.
You'll need to play more and emotion comes with time and life.
If any of that makes sense, im glad i could help.

[p2u_]

I'd like to improve on my ability to express feelings and communicate emotion through music rather than just getting the technicalities right.

Any advice or tips you could give me on this front?

I think it is important to realize that it's all about effects, not about your real inner feelings while you are performing.

If you tell a joke and you start laughing yourself before the punch line, you'll miss the effect of your joke and you will take away the experience of a good laugh from your listeners. Instead, you can go as far as a slight smile, but no further. Pauses are also VERY important while telling a good joke, so you can warm them up so to speak. What makes you laugh when others tell a good joke? It's not merely the words of the joke.

If you want to say something really sad, but you lose control and start crying yourself while playing, you may make a fool of yourself before the audience and they may laugh instead, not cry. Instead, you should think about what exactly moves people to tears when they listen to music. What moves you in others when they play? It's not merely the notes.

Of course, to be able to convey all these emotions/sound effects you need to do lots of analysis, have plenty of technique, tone control, clear sound images, etc. That's basically what others in this thread have told you already.

Paul

[keypeg]

There is an elusive and tricky balance that works back and forth between what we can feel and hear in the music inside ourselves, and what is learned intellectually and mechanically.  Think first of ordinary communication.  If you feel anger or sadness, your voice and body language will convey the feeling without you having to learn a technique that says: anger - expel a greater amount of air forcefully while tensing vocal muscles; sadness - lower voice, slow down speech.  But physically we do these things to express those emotions.  An actor, otoh, also learns to do such things deliberately, to be self-aware and observant.  An actor is also using his body as well do in life.  We are doing physical actions on an instrument, which is less direct.

So you're at the piano.  Maybe you've experimented and you can make notes quieter and louder.  So that same instinct comes as in speech --- sad = quiet and slow; angry is loud and harsh.  You can put that in for a first kind of expressiveness.  Even with this, however, I would want to know how to play loud and soft, to do staccato and legato.  Or in the least hope that my teacher would monitor what I'm doing, watch that it's going in the right direction and give better alternatives if not.  If you feel strong emotion, you can just as well end up being overwhelmed with emotion, and unable to turn that into any action that conveys it to your listener.  Nobody can hear your wildly beating heart - you have to play.

I first played piano self-taught decades ago before taking it up again recently.   What I did for expression wasn't necessarily good.  I heard a crisp staccato in my head, and I tensed my arms and did a pecking-poking kind of thing.  It made the right sound, but stopped everything else.  How do you do fast staccato with tight arms?  We need technique, which is the efficient way of using the body interacting with the instrument.   That is a teacher's role.

Somebody mentioned theory.  Well, when you understand the music this also tells you how to make it expressive.  You recognize a phrase, and maybe make it climb in dynamics, becoming louder and softer.  Maybe there are three phrases, and each will be louder up to a climax.  (And then you need the technique to build that climax).  Or playing one hand soft, one hand loud - and learning the coordination to bring that about.  Or understanding meter and pulse - such as the strong beat in a waltz.  Theory (understanding) and technique go hand in hand, because in theory you get a sense of what to bring out, and in technique you find out how to.