Author: Ermias Kebede
You can have two individuals, with similar musical technical
ability, play the same exact notes on a guitar and receive
completely different reaction from the audience. You can also
have musicians who train day in and day out and become extremely
good at technically manipulating their instrument but when you
hear them play, they hardly evoke any emotional reaction in the
audience. On the other hand, you have the other kind of
musicians, who may either be technically good or not, but their
delivery always triggers a palpable emotional reaction in their
audience. So what is the element that makes the difference?.
Maybe we can begin to answer that by following it with these
questions. Does the great musician really need an instrument to
become one?. Or, to phrase it another way, does the instrument
have anything to do in creating a great musician?. The answer
is, as you might have guessed is, not really. The instrument is
purely incidental, in fact, a great musician can merely whistle
and get a favorable audience reaction. Why? because they are
born with the internal knowledge of the universal language of
music, also know as, the gift of music. The possession of that
knowledge or talent is the critical difference between the great
musician versus the instrumental player. The great musician
usually has a clear connection with the musical language within
themselves, making it easy for them to express it. To the extent
they can tap into that energy the greater they can reach the
audience. The not so great musician, on the other hand, has a
blurred connection, if at all. You can play your instrument till
you drop dead, if the notes are not connected to your internal
language of music you are merely playing notes, not music.
The unfortunate difference between the language of music and any
other language is that, you cannot learn it. If you are born
with it, you can learn how to better tap into it, if you are not
born with it however, you might as well take up Spanish. For
those born with it, practicing your music should involve great
attention to the connection of yourself to the language of music
as much as the time spent with your instrument developing your
technique. By that I mean, in order to tap into the energy of
music easily, you will have to spend a great deal of time taking
care of your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health as
opposed to just concentrating on your instrument. Ultimately, it
is your usefulness, in terms of inspiring and touching your
audience that makes you a great musician.