Creating an individual interpretation of music is something I did not enjoy doing as a young student. I felt that I had no creativity, and thought it was silly to try to ascribe meaning or emotion of the pieces I was learning. But music is all about communication, and the clearer a performers concept, the greater impact on listeners.
What is a musical concept?
Musical concept means connecting to the emotion, image, story, or even just words to a piece of music. This can be an overarching idea of an entire piece or broken down section by section.
How does a musical concept help performance?
We have all heard performances where the performer was technically sound and wowed us with flute gymnastics but perhaps was lacking in feeling. On the other hand those pieces and songs that have the greatest impact are ones that we felt emotion coming from the performer even over the radio. The latter are the performances I connect with and am inspired by.
Musical concepts allow us to connect with the audience on a personal level and allow us to really share how the piece effects us. Both our emotion and love of music through telling a story.
How to create a musical concept?
Creating a concept is very personal to each individual because we all have different interests, perspectives, and life experiences. However there are some basic tools we can use to get us started. One way is to attach simple words to different parts of the piece such as a color, adjective, or emotion e.g. purple, chocolaty, deep, angry, diva etc.
Another way to convey your message is to have one overarching story or idea attached to a piece. For example I was learning the second movement of Hindemith's Flute Sonata. I used the concept of a family member who had an addiction and passed away at a young age. The anguish of the experience as well as the beauty found in his life helped me put a lot of emotion into the piece and helped it have meaning to me.
We can also create an entire story complete with characters. While preparing a piece for a competition I attached characters and a story line to each section of music that conveyed a different mood such as a royal household, a jester, and dastardly villain of course. This worked well for this piece because the main theme kept returning allowing for a continuation of the story.
Be creative and draw on your own experiences, dreams, or even hobbies. I promise it will improve your performance and increase the interest of the piece. For teachers it is a great tool to use and I would encourage you to start using it with your students even from the very beginning. Kids are creative and have strong emotions. Using music to express themselves can be a great outlet and growing experience.