GO WITH THE FLOW PHRASING

or singers and single line instrumentalists, the idea of phrasing musically becomes an important topic from early on in the learning process. As soon as a young recorder player is able to connect two notes together, we have the beginnings of a musically attractive line, which is central to the musical experience. For others who use air to fuel a phrase, such as clarinetists or trombonists, the technique needed to achieve this is often instinctive. They breathe in before a phrase, and out again the phrase, so that it comes to a meaningful end just as the breath itself is nearing its comfortable conclusion. In other words, the phrase is the breath. For other instrumentalists, a common objective is to convey something close to what a good singer does almost without, which teems with quotes from Chopin’s fellow composers and contemporaries on the subject of artistic piano playing. We quickly grasp that Chopin felt the piano to be capable of producing effects similar to those he admired from the bel canto singers of his day, and that phrasing is a key component of what pianists need to be thinking about.