[FrankHudson]

I agree with much of what has been said above, even Jeff's post just above that I'm going to sound like I'm 180 degrees from.

All art, including music, is about communicating/transferring experiences between the artist to the audience. This includes, but is not limited to, things we call emotions. If music couldn't communicate emotions it'd be a much more limited art, perhaps not an art at all.

One has to expect to be lucky to convey emotions just because you feel the emotions. Even "method acting" isn't that. I will say, considered apart from the performance context, music used simply for the player's own wellbeing, can be helpful. Playing an instrument instead of kicking the dog, overindulging in some chemical, or saying what you want to say, but can't, can be helpful. I know it has been this to me when I needed it to be.

In a performance context you need to know how to best communicate things to the audience, so practicing the techniques that communicate things is the way to go--after all, you're not going use some kind of telepathy to communicate.

Here's I'll get back to what Jeff said. Sometimes--just as we can overplay with other techniques--we can "overplay" using the techniques for portraying/communicating emotions as performers. In my current project I'm working with other peoples words, some meant to communicate intense feelings, and sometimes the best approach is a more minimal one, "just say the words."