What Does "Playing from the Heart" Actually Mean?

Talk to people very long about how to write a good song and you will surely hear the phrase "You just need to play from your heart". A phrase that has been repeated so many times that it's now a cliche. What does that even really mean? Why is it important? And how exactly are you supposed to do it? And if it's so easy and self evident, why do so many people have such a hard time doing it?

How can we define "playing from the heart"? When most people describe playing from the heart it sounds like they are describing the perceived level of sincerity of the artist and his message, musically, lyrically, both or otherwise. The word "sincere" is defined as "lack of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness; earnest" or"pure; unmixed; unadulterated" or "genuine". So we can say when an artist is being sincere, the artist is actually feeling or it is perceived that he or she is actually feeling the emotions conveyed in his song (much like an actor). When an artist isn't really feeling the music he or she is writing, then he or she is no longer playing from the heart. I think this sincerity can also be described as"keeping it real".

So now that we have a working definition of what "playing from the heart" is... how do we do it? And how do we know that when we do it, people will still like it? Is all music that is "real" and "genuine" necessarily good music? To do that you must define what "good music" actually is. And that can only be done on a case by case basis because it is so subjective. And from there you must determine how much of the "good music" is being sincere. This is starting to get complicated, if not impossible.

Perhaps instead we can start to figure out how to be sincere then. I guess the simplest definition of this would be to make sure you feel or mean every note that you play or write. Ok that sounds simple enough. So why doesn't everybody just make sure they feel what they play? Perhaps it is difficult for people to understand what they're feeling, and then find something equivalent musically to represent it. Well what could you do to improve your ability to capture those feelings? (For a detailed explanation of this read my ASR theory article) You could do exercises that involve taking what's in your head and bringing it into the real world. You would want as little as possible standing in your way from getting those feelings into tangible notes. So you'd have to make sure you know the "language of music" well enough to communicate your message. Otherwise, it'd be like trying to write anovel or give a speech without first knowing how to communicate in the language. A great speech won't sound rehearsed, it'll sound like the speaker is making it up as they go along delivering the message straight to you. This would first most likely involve ear training. Knowing your notes back and forth and up and down so that when you hear something in your head you automatically know what it is and can quantify that into the real world. Be that on paper, in your voice, or on your instrument. Going along with this you'd also want to practice improvisation at the same time so that you could get your fears and inhibitions out of the way from letting your thoughts come clearly to you. From there you would have a solid connection to the music in your head, and you could further your studies onto form, composition, specific techniques and then any area you wish from there.


Let's back up for a second and take this in reverse. So what would it be like to not be sincere when you are writing? It sounds like you could divide it two ways. Either don't know you aren't being sincere / don't know how to be, or you do know that you aren't and are still writing anyways. For the people who don't know or don't know how to be sincere...perhaps they are feeling a certain way but don't understand how to capture it,so they settled for something else that they didn't really like. Perhaps they aren't feeling the notes at all, but just putting learned patterns together in rational ways. Perhaps for some music is more of a puzzle, rather than an expression. Perhaps they are writing not for themselves but trying to write for what they think others will like. (this could also fall under the people who do know they aren't being sincere category as well)


For the people that do know they aren't being sincere but still do it, they must be writing for another reason besides expression. For example they are obligated by contract to produce music, even when they aren't feeling it. Perhaps they feel obligated to themselves or others to produce even when they don't want to. Or expression is just not important to them to begin with and music is just a means to an end. They are being reinforced to continue for other reasons such as money, women, fame etc.


So after going through all this trouble to try and be sincere, can we really be sure that it is truly even important to play from the heart? Do we really know how many artists achieve "success" by playing from the heart opposed to those who don't? We may never know. If we defined success by money, fame and fortune surely there have been many pop songs created that are not sincere that have made tons of money. And there are surely artists writing songs that are sincere that remain unknown and penniless. One can see now that there are so many reasons people write and perform music that artists that are playing for self expression purposes only is only a portion of overall music. And of that there's probably only a portion of that who are truly expressing themselves to their full potential. So are we now just left with a bag of opinions?

I think now we are left at a crossroads. We must decide what are goals are musically. And also how we would define sucess. If your goal is to express yourself clearly and success would be to write songs that carry what you need to say, then playing from the heart is most likely in your best interests to achieve your goals. Fame and fortune may be a by product of this if other people like it, but if not at least you met your goals. If your goal is to write music for other people or things like film, playing from your heart may not be in your best interests, because you must convey what other people want, not what you truly believe in.

So the next time you hear someone say "Just play from the heart", respond with "how exactly do I do that?" or "Why should I do that". See what they say. Then send them a link to this article.