The essence of music

Cussin' & discussin' the merits of different styles in another venue, I was drawn into writing this:

Actually, all music is about connecting emotionally through melody, harmony, and rhythm. Different melodies require different approaches to playing the instrument, but the hardest part is connecting emotionally with the listener through the shared experience of the music.

If you are thinking "I'm shredding up and down the fourth mode of a G melodic minor scale" or "I'm arpeggiating the upper structure triad of available tensions to the C major 7 chord", you are probably not connecting to the music emotionally, to say nothing of connecting with the listener.