It's not a complicated idea, this idea of seeking lovliness in one's music, yet it seems curiously illusive.
The secret doesn't lie in your hands, not initially. The path to making lovely music begins with your ears.
Listen. Listen to every detail. In most cases, your hands will follow if you've worked on basic technique.
Music that doesn't challenge your skill sets is the best place to start. This allows your ears to become more invovled with what you create. Look at Beside Still Waters below. Because the music is not dense with notes, every note matters. While the strings are easy to find, the loveliness needs to be cultivated. If you'll take time to listen, you'll find the loveliness hidden in the simplicity of the music.
You can enlarge each image by clicking on it, or download the sheet music.
Steps to loveliness in Beside Still Waters:
1) Study the bass clef notes on the first page and the treble notes on the second page. Listen. Each note needs to ring for its entire duration. This means you cannot touch the string to replace until (nearly) the moment it should be heard. You won't be able to place ahead in this instance, instead, placing on the string and playing is nearly simulaneous. Be sure that every time you leave the string, you release tension in your hand and arm.
2) Study the treble clef on the first page and bass clef on the second page. Know where you are spatially. If you're attempting this piece, you have probably worked etudes that teach you the placing of different intervals. Notice first how the melody moves a little above or a little below the A string. This may be played with only second finger, but most people fill find that placing small groupings of notes is easier, both for not finding and control of being legato (smooth, connected).
3) Once you can control a sense of sustain in all the notes, try playing both right and left hands together. Go slow. Listen. Everything should ring through to the next beat.
4) Stay relaxed. Tension is not your friend. At a slow pace, with few notes, this is a great place to learn to release tension, or to review the skill until it's second nature. If you are studying a method that teaches gestures as you leave the strings, you should know that the intent of these, which is often not stated, was the provide a cue to release tension.