Phrasing & Expression

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. Today we're talking about something so powerful and awesome that it can make your mother cry. Huh? Why would I want to make my mother cry? Oh, hi Chef. Believe me, this is a good thing. I'm talking about happy tears. One of a mom's very favorite things in the world is when their child creates something beautiful. It so happens that dads like it too, and when a child does something really special or beautiful, it kind of makes their eyes start to leak a little, you know, happy tears. Oh, like when I wrote my mom a special poem and gave it to her. Her eyes did get a little watery. Exactly, and you know, honestly it doesn't matter so much whether or not you make someone cry. Some people you know, try to hold it in. The important thing is that you're trying to make something beautiful. Whether it's a drawing, a painting, or a poem, or playing a song on the piano. Or baking a delicious meal. That too. Today we're learning how to make our music more beautiful or delicious using phrasing. To understand phrasing, let's first take a quick look at the score for "Silver Birch Tree." Music is built on phrases, and a phrase is like a musical sentence. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Just like a regular sentence. So, the first phrase of silver birch tree is ♫Silver birch alone in the meadow♫ And then in the music or in the lyrics, there's a period there and also the notes kind of come to a rest there. So that is the first phrase of the song, and often that's marked the long curved line that looks like this. This is called a phrase mark, and it shows you the start of one idea musically and where that idea ends. So there's one phrase, here's another phrase. ♫Standing all alone in the meadow♫ That makes another phrase. Then we have a third phrase down here. ♫Soon a shepherd boy comes walking♫ And then the last phrase of the song is down here. It so happens that in this song all the phrases line up where one line is one phrase, but it doesn't have to be that way. Sometimes you can have a phrase go off the edge of one line and continue on to the next line. Now, phrasing is the art of making each phrase beautiful, or interesting, or meaningful. For example, if you were to play this really boring without phrasing, it might be: ♫Silver birch alone in the meadow♫ Kind of like how a robot might perform it, but with phrasing you're going to make the notes interesting. Maybe starting a little softer, then getting louder in the middle, getting softer at the end. Phrasing means we're going to add meaning, interest to the notes. When you talk, you already use phrasing all the time. Phrasing adds meaning and interest to what you say. Think about saying: 'We're having scrambled eggs for breakfast?' Or you could say the same words: 'We're having scrambled eggs for breakfast!' Similarly, in music you can take the same notes and express them in different ways. Today we're going to learn what the most common and effective ways to express a phrase in music. Which is by starting soft, then growing louder towards somewhere in the middle of the phrase, then slowly getting softer with the last note of the phrase being the very softest of all. It's a very effective phrasing technique. To practice this, will you try singing "Silver Birch Tree" with me? While we sing, I'd like you to move your hands to show how loud the sound is. When we're quieter, the hands are closer together, and as the sound grows our hands spread further and further apart. Try it along with me. Sing move your hands. We're going to start really soft. ♫Silver birch alone in the meadow♫ ♫Standing all along in the meadow♫ ♫Soon a shepherd boy comes walking♫ ♫With his sheep and goats he's walking♫ Nice work. Do you see how the phrasing can really help to make the music interesting and more beautiful? I love good phrasing in music. Let's try it one more time. This time I'll play "Silver Birch Tree" with chords while you sing and move your hands just like we did just now. I want you to kind of pretend that you're my conductor. In an orchestra, one of the jobs of the conductor is to show everyone how loud or how soft to play by how wide or how little their hands are showing. So, your job is to sing and conduct while I play and try and match your hands with how loud and soft I'm playing each phrase. Okay, here goes. I'll play, you conduct and sing. Start with your hands small to show the soft sound I begin with. Ready, go. ♫Silver birch alone in the meadow♫ Start soft, then grow. Get soft again. Start soft. Start soft, then grow. End soft. Now it's your turn to try playing "Silver Birch Tree" with phrasing. I'm assuming at this point that you already know how to play "Silver Birch tree by learning it in a previous lesson and practicing it on your own. So, first time through let's just have you play the right hand of "Silver Birch Tree." I'll be your conductor as you play. Remember, we want to start soft, then grow then get softer again with the last note being the very softest of all. Actually, let me show you a quick trick for playing that last note really softly. So here's an expert tip for making that last note of your phrase extra special ...