Panurge, again, I'm not really arguing with you much.
But I would argue that even Bach was expressing something he felt inside, which is what lead him to create the sort of musical patterns he used.
IIRC, many of his pieces were commissioned by churches and royalty, and it makes sense then that many of the patterns he used lent themselves to grandeur...an emotion.
Beethoven also wrote both an "Ode To Joy"(emotion), and a great minor key piano sonata that is very sad...."depressing" even, which is the emotion most often expressed by minor keys.
Likewise, most Punk Rock deals with anger, as does not a small amount of Metal.
Anger is a very immediate and visceral emotion...things blur a bit when you get really angry, and judgement fails.
Actually, that can be said about almost any really strong emotion....emotions tend to be rather nebulous, alogical things.
Sometimes the best music to express such emotions is equally nebulous and alogical.
Obviously, when you get down to it, musicians are in a constant state of learning...or they should be anyway.
I'm just saying there's other ways of doing that learning than sitting down and memorizing a billion scales, then learning how to tap out every chord in those scales at the quickest possible speed.
And likewise, different genres are going to have a different value one certain types of phrasing, dynamics, etc...
My preference is to stay as formless as the emotion, and try a couple hundred ideas before I find some that fit what I'm trying to say in the song.
I learned a lot of technical terms when I took theory classes in college, but I forgot them pretty quick when I went back to making music rather than studying it.
There's nothing wrong with "getting good" at your craft, but if you're a musician, there's also no single "correct way" to do that.
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