If you want to play a musical instrument, the first thing that you need to learn is how to feel the music and to love it. Many people begin music classes because they want to imitate a famous musician and emulate their performances on stage. There is nothing wrong with this; it simply means that the famous musician in question has put across enough passion and feeling to prompt another person to wish to do the same. When the classes begin, there are various types of student. On the one hand, there are those who only go to class in order to do something extra, and who want to play a few notes without going further. Beyond them, there are those who want to achieve some form of musical career and who put in the effort to understand and study their instrument. Within this last mentioned group, we can also distinguish at least two further sub-groups: those who have great technical skill but do not touch people’s hearts when they play, and those who are able to feel the music and to transmit these feelings to those who listen to them.

Feeling the music, a form of communication

Feeling music and transmitting its message is a very ancient form of communication. In prehistoric times, humans began to make music and to express themselves by means of it. This included the notion that music was the best way of communicating with the gods. However, not everybody possessed this gift. One might be able to understand music by studying it, but not to feel it. It is certain that technical skill is very important, but music is nothing without feeling. For this reason, there are musicians with great technical skill who do not triumph in their field, and others who are completely self taught who have achieved great success. This is what the flamenco musicians call ‘duende’ (magical spirit): that magical something that some people have when they play and which fills everything that they do with feeling, as a result of which when people listen to their music they listen not just with their ears but also with their hearts.

Anastasia and her way of feeling the music

Anastasia McQueen offers dance music spectaculars, and the way of measuring the extent to which she manages to get the audience to feel the music consists in watching their bodies and seeing how they react to the music. When you see them move to the rhythm of the music without realising, without being conscious that something has possessed them, this is when we realise that a connection has been established. And this is part of the magic of Anastasia McQueen.