Music Place Online
The biggest question that any musician asks, at any stage in his or her learning, is this: Where do the techniques end and the passion begin?
Any musician who has taken the emotional experience of learning to perfect his craft has asked himself this question. The answer is not easy; it is a lifetime journey -- but one of the most enjoyable journeys one can take.
The better question to ask, perhaps, is how to find the people who have learned something on the way. The second question -- what to ask those people once they have been found?
The true masters of musical expression is not found separate from his or her instrument for very long. Indeed, the instrument becomes more like an appendage than a separate piece of matter. Just as one uses his eyes and brow to express happiness or distaste, so does the virtuoso use his instrument to express emotion in song. The answers to all musical questions can be found by finding such a person, or people, and emulating them until such a unique passion and skill is born inside of yourself that it is holding you back to copy any more. You may then become that which every person seeks, that is, to become the person you seek.
Passion is nothing without proper technique, because without proper technique, passion can not be adequately expressed. To find someone to teach you proper technique is simple, but as we have seen, your mission is deeper than that. The person you are looking for to teach you technique is not the guy who can sweep arpeggio the fastest. He is the person who can most fully express his passion without reserve, no matter what that passion may be. So he only plays as fast when he needs to -- no show-offs. When he plays slowly, you feel every note.
Technique is nothing without the passion, because without passion, players become robots who may impress a judge or two, but could never compose or interpret a piece in a way that could make you remember or laugh or dance or cry. However, what you want to avoid here are the blowhards -- people who talk a big game but who have not put in the time to develop the technique to adequately express their passion. These people are just as void as those who play like robots, and for all their lessons about chord changes and proper posture, they can teach you nothing you could not learn from a Youtube video.
As with most things in life, things that are on the surface adversarial actually build upon each other. Learn your instrument from both angles -- the efficiency of technique and the emotion of passion. Find teachers who have found the balance between the two, and do not trust your musical education to anything less. As a musician, you have a sacred chance to truly, profoundly affect people. You must never let this chance pass you by.