musicality

Musicality is how much an asalato player is "shaping" the musical ideas, through controlling dynamics, adding accents, or phrasing.

Good musicality uses tension and release; i.e. it creates tension and releases it through the use of small dynamics, accents, or phrasing.

less musical example

(insert video)

This idea is played the same each time, and has little variation within each phrase.

(insert video)

This idea is played with more contrast and builds/releases tension in the musical phrase.