I remarked to a violinist whom I'm accompanying and his mother that he is musical. She wanted to know what I meant by that. I listed several aspects: that the music has direction, that you're expressing something and not just playing the notes, that you sometimes linger on certain notes etc.. I added that for those who are not considered musical, it would be hard to learn anything from being labelled non-musical. I feel you either are or are not musical. Please add your definition of musical and its implications.

I hope it's OK for me to post in here: I'm not a teacher.

To me, when a musical person plays, it sounds like communication; the piece is coherent in every sense. I believe musicality can be taught (to a degree) through good use of the body and voice.

hmm im not a teacher yet either..
i think that people can be 'musical' in various ways, for example, i believe that everyone is able to express their emotions/feelings through a form of music, whether it's trhough an instrument, rhythm, or whatsoever..however i guess there is quite a bit of ..'genetics' in there..but then it also has alot to do with one's culture background as well as how someone's brought up.

Nor am I a teacher, but to tell some one to play with emotion is too non-specific. Better to have them "tell a story" based on the type of piece. For example for the Happy Farmer by Schumann, maybe there has been a drought and the crops are wilting the farmer may lose his crop and be ruined. Suddenly the skys open up and a nice steady rain falls. The farmer, his wife, childen all start dancing in the mud, laughing with joy and relief. That is the path to emotion, rather than "imagine a farmer that is happy".

I think that musical is being able to understand music in ways others cant, like having a special gift for music, or being a natural, and yes I agree that you have to put feeling into music or love the music you play...

Sorry to bring a dying thread alive again.. I was at home last weekend and I was playing a couple of Chopin pieces and a Schumann piece for my Grandma and mom. I've been a musician (bass player) for the past 10 years, and have only been studying classical piano seriously for the past year.

Anyway - when I was young (5-8 yrs I think) I took piano lessons, as did my older brother, but he continued with them for much longer than I did. I "hated them" 'cause I was forced and quit early, leaving me barely any recollection of those lessons to this day. My older brother is also a mathematical genius (earned his PhD in math by the time he was 26 I believe and now is a university professor at 30) There is a handful of piano pieces which he can play from memory, and he can sit in front of a piece of sheet music and pick it out much faster than I can at this point (even though he isn't actively practicing) As I recall, he was also a clarinet player in the high school jazz/orchestras etc..

But the one comment I keep hearing from my grandma, and most everybody else who has a chance to hear us both play, is that "Paul is so expressive with his playing, David just has no ear for that".. it's like his playing is very mechanical, almost an extension of the mathematical brain doing nothing but translating the notes on the score.. He'll be playing along, the Rustles of Spring or something like that comes to mind, and it doesn't grab attention. I played something as simple as Chopin Prelude in Eminor, and my grandma was brought to tears. I am no math genius, but I am a software engineer by day.. My mom will say "even when you were hating piano lessons as a kid, we all knew you had an ear".

am I "musical" and my brother "not musical"? It's entirely subjective of course, but interesting nonetheless.

-Paul