Originally Posted by: ChristopherSchlegel
Music does not contain emotion or feelings.
Music is highly, specifically organized sound moving through the air. Music has the potential to evoke an emotional reaction in the mind of the listener.
Emotions or feelings are your mind's reaction to things you encounter (in this case sounds you hear, since this is music) based upon your values.
So, when you hear a certain type of music that matches your values, you are pleased, you like it. And conversely, to a piece of music that does not match your values, you are displeased, you don't like it.
in the 80's, I had a sort of a guitar guru dude at a local store called Margritte's Music. The store was in my college days town of Moorhead Minnesota. Let me tell you th impact of that store. It was a top notch store with pro level gear. Steve Stine of Guitar Zoom went to that store. Mitch Gallagher went to that store. Jonny Lang went to that store. Note: I did know both Mitch and Steve back in the day.
Anyway, the guru was named Kenny Rairdon. He knew everyone in L.A.. Provably. He had lived there previously and had played in a few decent bands to include a precursor to the band Autograph.
Does any of this matter? Yes. Wisdom. He'd 'been there'.
He selected very few students to teachand his lessons were less on technique and deep theory and more about understanding how to connect yourself to the instrument and how to communicate to others.
To this topic,his wisdom was; music is like any language. It's used to communicate. The word itself is used to tell a story or an idea. It's the person that puts the feeling in to the words. It's not just the words you used but how you use them.
Though he never directly said it; I got the impression that his days in L.A., he'd seen more than his share of people that didn't get that. He saw more people trying to make it than make music.
Back to the point.
Like language, music in and of itself does not make emotion. The speaker or the player fills in that space. We all have the same access to the notes on the fretboard. Whydoes Derek Trucks bring such a sweet intensity to his slide? Why does Eric Johnson's melody uplift. What does Tony Iommi's dark riffage bring that heaviness?
The player's connection to their music does that.
A player has to connect to what they're playing to bring that emotion. Even studio guys like Tim Pierce can do that quickly by knowing the channels of feeling that inspire them.
Emotion is an abstraction that takes those musical rules and makes them in to something personal which is as varied as there are people on the planet. Organized music is the basline we used within which we place the emotional message we wish to convey.
My little essay on the subject...... ;)
