Louis Armstrong famously gave the following advice to a group of musicians he was recording with sometime in the 1960s: “Don’t try to play for the whole world. Just pick out one person. Just play for someone you love.” They were nervous about playing with the legendary Armstrong, and these words were intended to calm them and get them thinking in the right direction.
It’s great advice and, by the way, it works. I try it when I’m singing to a crowd, try to sing to someone in particular. It focuses me on the message of the song, sharing those words with someone you love, and that makes the song something that becomes a personal communication for the entire audience, puts the right emotion behind the words you’re singing so that the meaning is clearer, what the words of the song are intended to convey.
Of course, it works for instrumentalists as well as singers. It adds meaning and substance to whatever you’re playing. Just play for someone you love.