Emotions on the Piano

[jaydillinger]

Hello I'm new. I read a lot of forums but I am always reluctant to post in one. I have a hard time expressing myself in life. I hold in a lot of emotions especially anger.
I stumbled across a few YouTube videos of some of my favorite music and video games themes and also movies and the way there hands moved and the music plays captured
me. For some reason music has always moved into feelings I can't express in the moment. Kind of like a facilitator. I been playing 6 hours a day and I absolutely love. It takes all my stress away as I focus on the keys. The music playing loudly makes me honestly wanna break down.

Is there anyone else who emotions are only felt thru music. I have adhd also. Sorry for the bad volcabulary.

[tinyhands]

I know what you mean, although for me the emotions are usually sadness more than anger (I'm not an angry person but have had a few hard years with bereavment in my family, which I have mentioned before on a previous thread) anyway this has led at times to feeling extremely emotional when I play ..certain pieces set me off and I can cry like a baby.  ::)This has bothered me at times as it has sometimes resulted with breaking down and crying in lessons, my teacher has been amazing though...more like therapist sometimes! She talks about how when you play any instrument it is a very exposed thing..you are baring yourself to connect with the music and express yourself.  I know for myself that I will probably always feel a sadness at what has happened in my life..and to help For just now..I try to stick to happy expressive pieces that I can connect with but they don't make me too sad.  I am learning now to not beat myself up over my emotions..I feel what I feel, and try to turn it into a positive.  good luck

[bronnestam]

Some pieces just touch something within you. It is hard to explain exactly what happens; it could be some harmonies that just "click". And to me, it could very well be a popular modern song with pointless lyrics  as well - while other hit list songs leave me totally uninterested.


My big classical favourite composer is Beethoven. Again, it is hard to explain, but Beethoven is about emotions to me. Not even MY emotions, but his. It is like taking part of someone else's soul. Often I start crying when I hear Beethoven, but it is not my emotion or my pain. I am just very touched. So, to me Beethoven is more "for real" than any other music.

An example from real life: some weeks ago I was at a piano summer school. While being there, I one morning got some terrible news from home - one of my dogs, who was old and ill, had got worse and I understood this was the end. A few hours later he was gone. My best friend was gone, and I had not been there with him in his last moments. No need to say I was heartbroken, devastated and cried a river. So, in this condition I had to enter my scheduled lesson. Shaking, with a red and swollen face, I explained the situation to the teacher who was very nice and kind. I asked him to play something to me, as I felt totally unable to play. So he played, it was beautiful, I cried a bit more but then it felt better and we started to talk about Beethoven. Then we started to talk about how to start learning the first movement of the Appassionata, my favourite sonata. I have already worked with the other movements. I find it absolutely magnificent and passionate, it is heartbreaking and wonderful with all its emotion and mood changes. I got rather busy with the counting ...

Then I played a bit from another Beethoven sonata I'm working with and I played better than I normally do. And then I left the lesson, suddenly realising that ... I had completely forgotten about my personal grief for almost an hour. That is what Beethoven can do for me. That is why I love to attend recitals with Beethoven music, because there I sit, totally absorbed, and forget everything about myself and my everyday issues and relations and all the other sh*t that happens in the world. 

So music can stir up feelings within me without hurting me. And then there is music that awakes memories too, of course. I think that you feel only music can make you feel certain emotions because music is not a verbal langauge, therefore talking to other parts of your brain than spoken language. We are so used to describe things in either words or pictures, and music ... well, that is another channel.

[dcstudio]

You sound perfectly neurotic which tells me you may one day be a great player.  Not everyone is as moved by music as we are and it can be overwhelming.  Beethoven is a kindred spirit to many, myself included.  After spending 12 hours in a day at the keys i have, more than once, seen his ghost...or maybe i was already asleep..a little bit of crazy is always part of the package. I have spent 48 years trying to figure it all out.  I have learned that  whatever keeps you at the piano and keeps you moving on is a good thing regardless.