Chase, age 12, was playing The Christmas Song. You know the one: “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire . . . . ” 

The notes and rhythms were correct, but it was too fast, and it sounded mechanical and boring. There was no voicing of the melody, no breathing with the phrases, no rubato. It was dreadful.

“Listen to this,” I said, and pulled up Ella Fitzgerald’s recording on YouTube.

“Now make it sound like that,” I requested when we finished listening. 

That was all he needed. He got it.