Tts With Emotion

[Landerico Benson]

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Barrel Co-Founder/CEO Peter shared this video with the partners and me a couple of weeks ago that got me thinking about feedback and communication in an agency setting. It's a clip from an interview with author Simon Sinek, challenging the belief that we must be honest at the moment, no matter what. He starts by sharing an experience with a friend:

Sinek shares that when we're hoping to have a rational conversation, we should be mindful of the other person's emotional state. If the timing doesn't feel right, don't lie, but wait. In short, meet emotional situations with an emotional response, rational with rational.

In the past, I've often operated with the notion that quick, candid feedback is most effective as both a manager and an individual contributor. With recent events fresh on our minds, it feels as though real-time feedback will make it easier for everyone to connect the dots. However, Sinek's advice inspired me to think about situations where that may not be the way to go.

A design manager is unhappy with a junior designer's first presentation. They didn't cover all the talking points they agreed to before the meeting. The design manager and junior designer meet to review the next steps afterward. The junior designer shares how thrilled they are to have their first presentation under their belt.

A software engineer was up all night to meet a morning deadline. The next day, they meet with the project manager to review their work. The project manager is frustrated that the software engineer cut it so close, especially since they aligned on the timeline ahead of time. The software engineer comes to the meeting looking exhausted.

A client misses a feedback deadline for the third time, further shortening the timeline for the agency team to complete the project. The account lead is concerned about meeting the deadline with the client's lateness and disorganization. When the account lead sends a reminder for feedback, the client responds, asking to discuss how unhappy they are with the work so far. They get on a call.

There's a nuance to Sinek's concept that I think is worth mentioning: the relationship between the parties involved. In some cases, honesty at the moment might be okay. I believe it depends on the history of the relationship and any current agreements about how the two parties interact.

October 26, 2011 at 04:09 PM When I usually go watch videos of violinsts playing, most comments refer to the person playing ,"with emotion". What does this actually mean? I may sound stupid but is it just playing the way you feel or something else?

I think it is different to everybody what he feels while playing. Also some players may think of technique while the public thinks they are playing "with emotion", some will think of their grandma dying while the listener gets to see a nasty face and an out of tune g-minor arpeggio...

Ok, without joking now: I think a good way of discovering something like emotional playing with a good soul body connection is a natural good rhythm (like in speaking). Also "correct" and thoughtful phrasing can lead to a certain type of expressive speach.

Personally I don't feel, that someone has to exaggerate something in music so that it comes out the listener. I feel that if you have something to say you do it. Sometimes you reach the public sometimes not. But if you exaggerate you and the art you try to interpret become a caricature, wich is pathetic and funny.

October 26, 2011 at 08:47 PM It's a difficult concept for many people. Playing with emotion, to me, means crafting almost every note and then showing that to the listener through your performance (interpretation) of the music and maybe in your body language too.

There are infinite possibles when playing a note on the violin, and most of this work needs to be done before you perform - in other words work out how you feel about a piece, a passage, a bar, a note until it rings a bell with your emotions. Music played too straight is almost non-music and music without respect to the style or conventions will often be too wild. Where you draw the line is a case of taste, training, personal boundaries and for most, input from a teacher. You cannot "force" emotion into music by showing us how you feel without the instrument being the no.1 element. I see (sadly) a lot of players who who get the two aspects of performance mixed up; they show emotion through body language but reflect none in their notes, or the other way round. It's a fine art, that's why the great players are fine artists.

October 27, 2011 at 02:27 AM Playing with emotion means playing a piece in such a way as to elicit a particular emotional response in the listener. You may feel an emotion when you are playing a passage, but to what extent is this feeling conveyed?

October 27, 2011 at 03:57 AM I see playing with emotion as really embodying what the message of the piece is. That can be through bodily movement, or facial expressions, or simply just the exaggeration of dynamics and playing technique. It is definitely easier said than done. Sometimes the message is so distinct that one can over do it an sometimes the message is so subtle that one doesn't know how much expression or emotion to put into it and you under do it. I find that simply using the music as a guide--the actual notes not the dynamics though those are also important-- helps to express it a certain way. My teacher makes me practice playing scales in different expressive ways. He'll say play this scale in a romantic way or a scary way and even though it's just a scale the way you go about expressing that emotion will help in the way you would go about expressing it in an actual musical setting.

I am an adult learner, I started learning at age 37, many of us adults can't help we could not start as children, life is life....we are now in situations where we are not so 'blessed' to be able to dedicate hours on end every day to the violin. I can only give 2 hours a day to the violin (I have to give 12 hours a day 6 days a week to work and I am a single mother too), to me the violin IS A HOBBY by definition and I have 'copied and pasted the definition of HOBBY below taken from wikipedia'.

I think maybe you meant that those who do it as a 'blaze' 'pass the time' thing (ie I'll do it just because the grandchildren want me to?) or a 'challenge'? A hobby to many is indeed a serious thing....

PS (sorry went 'off topic')...to go back on topic...to play with emotion is 'I think' to bring the emotion of the piece that you play 'alive' through the music by a multitude of things such as dynamics, vibrato (or not), speed of bow, tilt of bow, soundpoint, pressure of bow and so on I think, many of these things you do consciously, but many you do 'unconsciously' by 'immersing yourself' in the music and it comes with experience and only as you know the music very well and as you become much more advanced in your instrument I think, and you can't do it with pieces that are too difficult for you to play....

I think basically playing with emotion means you're not just putting your fingers down and moving the bow to play notes, and not even just making musical line, but experiencing and communicating the meaning that you find in the music. Now if only I could figure out how to do it....

October 27, 2011 at 08:39 AM Of course you can play with emotion if it is a hobby. There is often only a very fine dividing line between professionals and amateurs if one is sufficiently advanced in the instrument anyway.

As for the comments about adults playing the violin as a hobby and not being able to express emotion is absolutely nonsense. The bottom line is you have to fall in love with the instrument. I'm an adult learner (nearly 50) and have been playing for three and a half years, but play four hours a day. Be it four hours or less, one can still play with emotion. I do think that once one is more comfortable with technique, it is much easier.

I think the two main factors are, apart from some technical knowledge of course, is to fall in love and also a certain character predisposition- passion and enthusiasm. Some people appear to never have that, as their characters are reserved. I don't know the answer to this one. Enthusiasm helps emotion and enthusiasm means 'en theos' - in God. Jesus came to give us life in abundance so if we really enjoy what we do and see violin learning as an amazing gift when so few get the opportunity, we cannot help but enthuse and convey this in our playing.

October 27, 2011 at 10:56 AM try to see it like you learn to speak at the early age: First you have ONLY expression like crying und screaming, then sometimes you learn new emotions and more subtle ones. After 1 year o so (!) you actually learn your first words.

Learning the violin unfortunately is a vera head-heavy procedure for most of us. Many people do know how to put their fingers right in the positions but they don't know what the violin and bow is really able to express. To learn that you have to experiment with sliding, pizzicato, flageolett, bowpressure and contact point. Try to express basic emotions with that "sounds" like anger, joy or sadness. Do it for some minutes a day and learn to know your instrument really.When you play a piece your mind will open up to the possibilities of the violin besides from playing "clean"and "in tune"... listen to Ivry Gitlis ;)

i think of it as having something to say because the player has connected to the piece/passage, and say it in a way that is effectively communicated to the audience. and every player does it differently even if equally effectively. to do that well takes intention as well as skillz.

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