This was a comment that I left in Liz’s blog and that I felt had some importance to be mirrored here:
Music to me is an expression, and recently, a conversation. I think whenever you play music, you are having a conversation between yourself and the audience. How well you play the music doesn’t depend just on the technical side but also on the expressive side. Since music expresses emotions, feelings, and even abstract words, the musician is measured on how well he or she can express them. This is why one must be “in the mood� to play a piece. Sometimes, I will find myself unable to play a piece because I am not mentally in the mood to play that piece. If it is a sad piece and I am not sad, I can’t play it right. Once, I can remember when I was pretty sad so I took out Claire de Lune by Debussy. I played it as slow as I could, and the music, which was innately beautiful, played in a sad tone came out in a beautiful sad tone which gave the feeling of when one is about to die and suddenly cherishes everything like it priceless.
Well, I couldn’t play Claire De Lune like that ever again. I’ve tried duplicating the slow speed that I’ve played it before, but my attempts sounded really dull and boring.
I just wasn’t in the mood ^^;.