I’m not sure Suzuki and the other Far East schools of teaching produce ‘robots’, there’s a plethora of skilled Oriental pianists with prodigious technique AND massive emotional content.

The problem is, just as it is over here, the technique needs to come FIRST before the emotion gets added, but many proud parents or pushy teachers start making videos as soon as the technique impresses, but before the emotional connection is made.

To excel at the highest levels of classical music, there’s really no substituting emotion for technique, simply playing the music (say Liszt or Rachmaninov) takes prodigious technique and no amount of emotion will make up for an inability to simply get the notes right.

Before we get judgmental of very young players, we need to appreciate we are seeing them LONG before they’re ready. A simpler piece but with more adult emotion might impress us more than technique without it here in the West, but BOTH are simply a premature stop on a much longer journey…