{"id":1333,"date":"2017-05-28T18:17:03","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T18:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/?p=1333"},"modified":"2020-05-08T17:11:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T21:11:16","slug":"l118-phrasing-the-basic-phrase-in-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.classicalguitarcorner.com\/l118-phrasing-the-basic-phrase-in-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Phrasing on the classical guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

A phrase is a line of music that presents a complete idea.<\/p>\n

It is quite an ambiguous term, and there are many variations possible, however phrasing is crucial to making music as it tells us how notes relate to one another, rather than being isolated dots on a page.<\/p>\n

The concept itself is very familiar to us as we speak in phrases on a daily basis. We understand that to speak a phrase\/sentence\/idea convincingly and clearly we have to have a concept of it before we begin, otherwise it might come out a bit haphazard.<\/p>\n

When I was in high school, the English class would read through Shakespeare plays and various students would get assigned roles as the others followed along. I was really into theatre at the time, so when I was given a role to speak I would be constantly jumping ahead to read my part and prepare the phrasing before it was my turn to speak. If I didn\u2019t get that preparation time then I would often stumble on words, give them the wrong inflection, and get the pacing all wrong.<\/p>\n

The same thing can happen if you don\u2019t think about phrasing in music. If it is just a series of little connected moments then it will be hard for the listener to know how it all makes sense together. Similar to Shakespeare, notated language might not be entirely comfortable for you right now, so it is important to take time specifically to look at the phrasing.<\/p>\n

Composers and editors are often doing their best to help delineate phrases and they mark out the connections with big long arches like this:<\/p>\n

\"Phrase<\/p>\n

If you ever see one of these, then give the editor a big pat on the back because they have done you a big favor. If the phrasing is not marked in, it is a wonderful idea for you to sit down away from the guitar and mark up your score. Phases can span large sections and run on quite a while, or they can sometimes be quite brief. They can also elide with one another (one finishes where the other begins) Luckily for us, phrases are usually pretty clear, at least once you get used to identifying them. In the example above we have a pair of phrases that compliment one another. You could call this pairing “call and answer”.<\/p>\n

In classical music you will often have two phrases that act as a somewhat \u2018Call and Answer\u201d relationship. These phrase pairs are often defined by the first ending in an imperfect phrase (the dominant chord or V chord, for example the chord of G in the Key of C) and the second, \u2018answering\u2019 phrase will end in a perfect cadence (V going to I \u2013 dominant to tonic \u2013 eg. G to C) If you hear enough of these phrases you will start to recognize them as a listener and you won\u2019t even have to see the score!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s have a look at one by Carulli:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

This example has two nicely balanced four measure phrases. The first phrase ends on a dominant harmony (the notes spell out most of the D7 chord in the key of G) and the second phrase finishes on the tonic chord of G major. This example is nice and balanced. In the classical style you will often find phrases that are two, four, eight, or sixteen measures long. These phrases can then be subdivided into other parts, but we will talk about them later.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Now, if we take the same passage of music, and consider the phrases to overlap one another, or to ‘elide’, then we get a somewhat different shaping of the music. In this case, the D and C lead back in to the next complimenting phrase and it give an almost up-beat effect. Both phrasings are ‘correct’ but they have different outcomes. And therein we find the wonderful world of phrasing and its possibilities. Just like the meanings of spoken sentences can be changed by commas, so can musical phrases have variation in meaning and cohesion.<\/p>\n

Irregular phrases <\/strong><\/p>\n

As I mentioned, phrases can often be balanced, even quite symmetrical, but in other cases it can take some detective work to figure it all out. I remember a lot of chamber music rehearsals, especially with more complex 20th<\/sup> Century music, that dedicated discussions to agreeing on where the phrasing was. It really is an important thing to understand and decipher, it will make the music more sensical and enjoyable for both the performer and the audience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Horizontal vs. Vertical Thinking<\/h2>\n

Thinking horizontally is something that doesn\u2019t come very naturally to guitarists. But working on horizontal phrasing is the key to playing long beautiful melodies.<\/p>\n

First let me clarify what I mean by the term \u2018horizontal\u2019. When we look at a guitar score that has chords and polyphony we will stack those notes in our head to think what chord that makes or how to finger them. That is thinking \u2018vertically\u2019. If we always think vertically, then we start marking the beats in each bar, even if it doesn\u2019t suit the music.<\/p>\n

\"Vertical<\/a>

Vertical Thinking in music<\/p><\/div>\n

Thinking horizontally is when you consider where the notes are going and where they have come from. If you have a clear idea of the whole melody you will play it quite differently than if you were reading it one note at a time. By analogy, it is like you had to read a speech to an adoring public but you were only given one word at a time on the teleprompter, you just wouldn\u2019t know how to link each word, and shape each sentence. It would come out. One. Word At. A. Time. Vertical\u2026.<\/p>\n

\"Horizontal-Phrasing\"<\/a>

Horizontal thinking<\/p><\/div>\n

As I said, this doesn\u2019t come naturally on the guitar partly because it is not a sustaining instrument and we don\u2019t have to breathe to make the notes sing. So, the best way to get around this is to put the guitar down for a moment, and sing along! Even if your voice is not top notch (points at himself) you will still phrase more horizontally when you sing. Once you have graced us with your beautiful voice a few times go back to the guitar and play through the phrase trying to imitate your singing line. That is playing horizontally!<\/p>\n

The bar line is not your friend<\/strong><\/p>\n

One more thing before you go.<\/p>\n

Those rhythmic divisions between the bars, you know, the bar lines. Somewhere along the line you were probably taught that the downbeat, the “1” is the strongest beat in the bar. Well, it may be in a general way but it doesn’t mean that you have to accent every note in a melody that lands on the down beat. If you do, then the melody starts to be broken up into sections and that stops a phrase from being formed. So instead of playing all your lines as 1<\/strong>234,1<\/strong>234,1<\/strong>234,1<\/strong>234 take care to look at the phrasing and figure out where the accents will actually suit the music, rather than the bar lines.<\/p>\n

\"Bar<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sentence Structure<\/h2>\n

Phrasing in music is incredibly important, but it is also important to recognize the smaller sections of a phrase. These smaller sections will help you understand how to play a phrase, it will aid in understanding the composition and in the process of memorization. All in all, phrase structure is a very useful piece of information.<\/p>\n

Sentence structure in language<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Just as in written language, there are structures that appear over and over again. So much so that you could often predict the ending or at the very least know how to speak it out loud with the correct inflection and pauses.<\/p>\n

Some examples of predicable phrases from a speech might be:<\/p>\n