If a student is detached from their music, there is no music. If they play enough times without passion, they develop a habit of detachment. Eventually, the student is merely pressing black and white plastic keys for half an hour every day.

Practice needs to include a connection, or there is no purpose to it. And so, when I teach my students, I tell them around thirty times per class to “become the music”, to which parents usually reply, “They’re too young to understand that.” But I disagree. Are they going to understand Beethoven’s symphonies? Probably not. Is it possible? Yes. Are they going to be able to express the ideas of a piece by Brahms at age 9? Probably not. But is it possible? Yes.

When parents tell their child to put in their twenty minutes of practice, the child will push buttons for twenty minutes and continue doing whatever they were doing before. There is no one to encourage them to understand the music and build a connection with it.

Then, when the recital comes around, there is always that one student where when he or she plays, everyone listens. They listen because he or she becomes the music and is able to communicate his or her passion to the audience. Those students feel an attachment with their music, and students who cannot play with passion when practicing simply will not be able to become the music when performing.

It’s easy to fix a wrong note, but it is difficult yet absolutely necessary to be passionate when playing. The musician has a responsibility to develop a story with emotion, build, and energy. Passion is the key to that.

Children can create their own version of that connection. It likely will not be at the same level of passion of, say, an older student, but a connection is still a connection, and it can develop powerful music.

I want to share a story about one of my students who figured out how to connect with her music. When she was about 7, she struggled with detachment, and her playing sounded disconnected. I could tell she had this quiet confidence, though I could not point out where she would show it. She worried that she would play the wrong notes or misinterpret the dynamics. More than anything, I felt that she was detached from herself; she was going through the motions of music. For the next three years, I worked with her to build her confidence and more importantly, become her true self. They were simple experiences — meeting other students, playing fun but challenging pieces, or discussing ways to connect with the music — with the end goal of her getting to know what it would be like to be confident.

Her quiet confidence finally came through. At a concert recently, she actually took initiative and greeted a new student from my studio. She held out her hand and continued, “Hi! My name is…” On top of that, there was a transformation in the way she played. It was lively and honest. It was passionate. She is proof that at ten years old, kids are capable of understanding music and themselves. We only have to guide them.

Students need to know that mistakes are just mistakes. They can be fixed in practice. But what creates a beautiful performance is connection. If we can prioritize passion just as we prioritize technique, our students could become better developed musicians along with a better version of themselves.

JT