Lesson 38: Musical Phrasing and Expression
- Find the phrase boundaries of an unfamiliar piece on first reading.
- Shape each phrase from beginning to end with breath and articulation.
A phrase is a musical sentence. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
A phrase is the unit of musical thought between two natural breath points. Boundaries usually fall every four or eight bars, at cadences, rests, or the longest notes. Find them, mark them, and play each phrase as a single arc — rising in the middle, settling at the end.
Finding phrases
The melody below is in two-bar phrases. Read it once and mark where each phrase ends — you will hear three natural pauses.
Shaping a phrase
Apply the arch with breath: more support through the middle of the phrase, less at the start and end. Articulation follows: forward at the start, lighter at the close.
Play once flat, then once with arch shape on each four-bar phrase.
Now play these
- Greensleeves
- Eight-bar phrases. Each one its own small arc.
- Danny Boy
- Long, vocal phrases. One breath per line of text.
- Vivaldi: Concerto RV 443 (Largo)
- The slow movement's phrasing is the entire performance.
When a recording of you playing a phrase-rich melody has audible shape on every phrase, move on to Lesson 39.