Muscial prodigies

I picked up my violin today at lunch for the first time in months. It amazes me how my fingers never seem to forget what they're supposed to do. Today I realized, however, that how I hear and interpret the music is significantly different than when I was at my musical peak.

Child prodigies will never be able to play music the same way adults do. I've come up with the reason why - a child learns to read the music, play the notes, and emulate what they hear others do. They can't feel what the composer was feeling when they wrote it. They have no life experience to compare to. They don't know heartbreak or sadness or angst.

As I play music that I played as a kid, I play it much differently now. The notes might not be as technically accurate as they once were, I might be slightly out of tune on some notes, and my rhythm isn't as crisp as it once was, but I feel the music. Now I interpret the music - I alter tempos and my dynamics are much more great. I see the notes on the paper as a mere guide and let my emotions of the moment take over.