Q&A: Playing with Emotion

"any advice on playing with emotion? like the titanic arrangement, when i play it people say i sound like a robot. i want to make people cry?"

     This is one of those questions where any answer given will probably sound like complete BS.
First, get this into your head: music is inspired by and created with emotion, performed with emotion, and received with emotion. A piece played without emotion is just a series of notes. I don't think it can really be called music. That would be like stacking two pieces of bread and calling it a sandwich.
...that was terrible. I'm sorry.
     Each song you play has a story. It's your job to tell the story, to bring it to life. A good storyteller uses his voice to incite emotion. If it's a scary story, he'll use a dark, haunting voice. If it's comical, he changes his voice and intonation to draw the audience into the right mood. When we speak, in our emotions and in our intentions there are words that we pronounce quietly, others that we pronounce loudly. It's the same for music; this use of dynamics is how we tell our stories. It's how we keep the story's momentum, and how we keep people interested. Imagine a professor lecturing with a bored, monotone voice compared with a dynamic teacher who is passionate about the subject.

     You need to know what you're trying to convey. What I mean is, you need to express your interpretation of a song's message through the guitar. When I recorded the "My Heart Will Go On" video, for example, I wanted to show how beautiful love is. Yes, retch with me now. I actually said that. But honestly, that was the major impression I had from the movie, given that the last time I'd seen it was when I was 9 or something. I play it differently now than I did a year ago, now that I've re-watched the movie. My current rendition tends to be a bit deeper and sadder. Music is an expression of emotion. Again, the guitar is just a vehicle. Michael Hedges often discussed this in his interviews. An artist at work isn't playing the guitar, he/she is playing through the guitar.
   Speaking more directly to guitar playing, a good bit of the emotion is found in the little nuances - your vibrato, dynamics, the way you hold a bend, etc. It's more about how you play the notes, rather than the notes themselves. Listen to your playing and ask yourself, is this how I would sing the song? The guitar is your voice. If you watch Tommy Emmanuel or Adam Rafferty, you'll often see that they hum along with their playing and even add lyrics at points. The melody is extremely important; it is the storyteller's voice that your audience will listen for. The melody must be like someone singing. What happens if you hold a note a little longer than usual? What if you slide into a note instead of doing a hammer-on? These are things you should experiment with as you try to find a good way to express what you feel. This is what separates the artists from the guitar players. Listen to a lot of music, as that will help to improve your sensitivity and musicality.

On a side note, I got a copyright warning for my Silent Night video.  Entity: Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society Content Type: Musical Composition Whaaaat? If anyone can explain this to me, please do!