[whiddershins]

I'm just going to weigh in here and say ... your comment could be taken the wrong way.

I am a noise musician, among other things. It's an entire career. And whether music is about conveying emotion ... I don't know if that covers all the edge cases.

My favorite definition of music is "sound arranged over time."

However, I totally agree with what you are getting at. Learning music is really about learning conventions and common language, which allow you to communicate emotions and mental states, especially at the beginning.