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Even if the child is not capable yet of understanding the structure of a musical piece, he or she can certainly feel it and imitate the teacher’s A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by I[r]
This is NOT a free report! The real price of this report is $47 You have been given one complimentary copy to keep on your computer only as a bonus for subscribing to PianoCareer.com Printing our more than one copy - or distributing it electronically - is prohibited by international and national laws Copyright © 2011 PianoCareer.com All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system The articles in this report are for educational purposes only The intent of the author is to offer information and advice that will help you understand and develop the art of piano phrasing Nothing in this report should be considered personalized piano practice advice In case you have questions or comments, please submit them in the comment forms on PianoCareer.com (or contact the author via email, Twitter, Facebook or Google+) In the event you use any of the information in this report for yourself, the author assumes no responsibility for your actions FOREWORD Piano playing doesn’t have to be a continuous struggle It doesn’t have to be boring, lifeless and it certainly doesn’t have to be painful and full of stress Piano playing has to be a lifestyle A lifestyle that will allow you to create, to express yourself, to find your balance and your unique place in this world A lifestyle that you will truly enjoy! There are many things - I call them magic ingredients - that can bring a spark of life and a sense of fulfillment to your daily practice and your performances One of them is correct phrasing Unfortunately, phrasing is often neglected or misinterpreted by most piano beginners and intermediates (and their teachers) However, this little ingredient can make the difference between a mechanical, raw and boring performance and a beautiful, meaningful and captivating one Piano phrasing is not difficult: things seem difficult only when we lack the proper information Phrasing gets easy and fun once you understand the basics! That’s what I plan to in this report – reveal the basics of correct phrasing and spice up the recipe with several secrets which will considerably simplify your practice! For writing this report, I synthesized the phrasing principles used in the Russian piano school for achieving a flowing performance full of awareness, inspiration and musicality; some useful insights from the Western musical tradition; the experience of my wonderful piano teachers - Lia Oxinoit and Ludmila Vaverco; and, of course, all the phrasing tricks and secrets that I learned the hard way during 24 years of studying and playing piano and years of teaching The report is structured as a step-by-step guide with many examples, metaphors, graphics and exercises I hope that it will give you a new perspective on piano playing, will show you the way towards a new level of piano mastery, and - the most important thing - will help you enjoy the entire process! A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ PHRASE AND PHRASING UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE When words leave off, music begins ~Heinrich Heine Have you ever witnessed a year old kid reciting a poem? Besides being sweet and clumsy, the kid is also saying the words mechanically, without understanding the meaning of each sentence He or she usually takes breaths between lines or whenever comfortable, not taking into account the beginning and end of a certain idea Have you noticed that the same thing happens with most piano beginners (and even intermediate students)? Just like poems (or other types of written and spoken text), musical works are composed from certain thoughts and ideas - musical phrases - that together form a piece: a Sonata, an Etude, a Prelude, a Fugue, a Nocturne and even a complex Symphony movement In the realm of music theory, there are many definitions of a musical phrase These definitions usually sound like this one: A musical phrase is a succession of notes (or even motifs and figures) that has a complete musical sense For an easier understanding, we can always compare a musical phrase with a spoken or written sentence A sentence is a thought, an idea that is expressed via our language A musical phrase is also a thought or an idea - the only difference is that it’s expressed via musical language: sound and silence, rhythm and dynamics, and an infinite variation of pitches and timbres However, as many poets, philosophers and musicians noticed throughout history - the music’s power of expression reaches far beyond the possibilities of our verbal language A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ When you’re years old, it’s normal to be unaware of the meaning of a certain sentence or phrase However, as you get older, you begin to speak with awareness, modeling your intonation and making logical pauses according to the meaning of the idea you’re trying to communicate In musical performance, this is the essence of phrasing - it’s the ability of the performer (no matter if he or she is a pianist, a violinist, an oboist, a singer or an orchestra conductor) to express a musical phrase, to shape it, to bring it to life and transform it into a convincing meaningful message with a clear structure (beginning, middle - or culminating point - and end) by using the specific technical possibilities of the instrument So, in piano playing (and not only), phrasing is also a special technique that allows the performer to transform the notes written in the score into musical sentences Mastering this technique (personally, I think that it is more an art than a technique) is usually that significant quality which separates a piano professional from a beginner or an amateur Phrases are present in all kinds of music, regardless of style and genre: instrumental and vocal, baroque and classical, romantic and impressionist, folklore and pop even the experimental atonal music of the XXth century has its specific phrases! Musical phrases exist either you have the ability of understanding and expressing them or not My report is dedicated to the art of bringing these phrases to life in piano playing (or the art of mastering piano phrasing) A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ SHORT INTRODUCTION: TWO LEVELS OF MUSICAL PHRASING The ability of expressing a musical phrase resides simultaneously on two levels - mental and physical On the mental level, phrasing is the art of visualization It is the capacity of seeing ahead of you, of imagining HOW a musical idea (phrase) should sound before actually playing it This is not all: it also means imagining the outline of the phrase - knowing where exactly it begins, where it leads (its culminating point) and where it ends On the physical level, phrasing is the art of making your vision come true It is the knowledge and the skills that allow you to technically transfer the visualized phrase to the instrument, so that what you imagined becomes a reality If we make a comparison - it means thinking before you speak and then speaking by using the speed, intonation and attitude that best match your thoughts and your intentions! This way, you’ll avoid saying something stupid and you’ll make sure that the thought you’re expressing is delivered to the listener in a comprehensible manner that will guarantee its positive reception Simply put, in order to express a thought, you have to know what to say and how to speak In time and with enough practice, we learn (or at least we should learn!!!) to both things simultaneously, because in the end these skills are the inseparable parts of a whole - our ability to express ourselves The same can be said about music! A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ PIANO PHRASING - STEP 1: ANALYZING THE PIECE: KNOW YOUR DESTINATION! OR THE MENTAL LEVEL OF PIANO PHRASING A Little Story: Avoid Learning a Piece the Hard Way! Most things in life are much easier than they seem Piano playing is not an exception However, our human nature has this annoying tendency of doing things the hard way: we complicate everything and then we complain about lack of time, excessive difficulty and stress How does this relate to piano phrasing? Before diving directly into the depths and particularities of phrasing, let me give you an example - a little story that will probably sound extremely familiar: Imagine that your teacher told you to learn a new piece What you usually do? You go home (or to a practice room), you sit at the piano, you put the score in front of you and you start reading the piece by taking it one note at a time Such an approach is similar to hacking your way with a big knife through an unknown jungle without even knowing if you’re heading in the right direction! Yes, eventually you will find a clearing or even the end of the jungle, but you’ll lose lots of time and effort in the process! Avoid doing things the hard way! Playing piano is not easy, but we certainly don’t have to make it more complicated than it is! For a better understanding, let’s take a closer look at the usual steps of the hard way method, which is unfortunately ‘practiced’ by many piano students (being sometimes a result of an incorrect approach of their teachers): Sight reading of the notes (hands separate for beginners, hands together for advanced players) Please pay attention - I’m not writing ‘sight reading of the text’ - which is a A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ complex term that includes notes, rhythm, durations, pauses, fingering, dynamics, character, pedal I’m saying ‘sight reading of the notes’ - which means figuring out where the notes are on the keyboard and pressing them without thinking about all the other elements of the text Learning the text approximately, without thinking about its meaning, according to what you ‘deciphered’ during your sight reading Going to class, where the teacher has to correct all your mistakes - many wrong notes, inexact fingering, inaccurate durations etc not to mention inexistent dynamics!!! Going home and trying to correct these mistakes which is not an easy process, because your fingers have already memorized everything the wrong way! Fighting with your tendency of playing the wrong notes and durations mechanically remembering to take a look at the score from time to time, where your teacher marked with fat pencil circles all your mistakes Getting tired of this frustrating process - especially when you have several such pieces to prepare for your next exam - and taking a break which can last for several days (after all, you’re so busy!) You lose several weeks or even months in the process of figuring out the text and (hopefully) the dynamics When you take a look at the calendar, you see that your exam is in two weeks!!! Panicked, you start to push your way through the text harder, trying to memorize it as fast as possible so you’ll be able to play it without mistakes at the exam The result is not hard to imagine: frustration, anxiety, headaches, hand injuries related to incorrect practice and the list can go on! Does this scenario sound familiar? Or, if you’re a teacher, are most of your students experiencing this ‘piano condition’? Of course, in such circumstances it’s hard to talk about the quality of the sound, about expressing musical messages and learning the art of phrasing Now, let’s make things easier! Fortunately, there is an easy way of avoiding this incorrect method of learning a piano piece I will give this method a simple name - “Before going to the jungle, find yourself (or draw) a map!” A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ Usually, it is even easier than that: the composer already did this job for you! Each musical score (especially if it’s written by a great composer) is a well-structured map – all you have to is open your eyes (initially - with the help of your teacher) and learn how to follow its directions! Guess what – if you this before diving head-first into reading the notes, you’re making your life much easier! Here’s what I mean: If you’re a teacher, don’t tell your student to read an unknown piece without playing it for him/her first Even before playing, analyze the piece together: you have to explain a few things about the epoch, the composer and his style, about the message and images of this particular piece, about its character and structure Before sending the student home to practice, show him/her HOW to read the piece It’s even better to begin reading the work during the class and allow the student to continue reading it at home In other words - draw a map of the musical piece! If you’re a student or you’re learning to play piano by yourself, don’t start reading a piece without at least looking at it from the beginning till the end and trying to understand the main elements: message, character, rhythm, tempo, dynamics and structure! Listening to a recording while looking at the score is even better (especially for beginners) - this way you’ll learn to make direct associations between what is written and how it sounds After listening to a recording or to your teacher, you’ll know how this piece should sound like even before playing the first note! This will dramatically increase your learning speed, allowing you to concentrate on important things like sound and phrasing! In case of small children, this process has to be focused on intuitive feelings rather than on rational understanding Even if the child is not capable (yet) of understanding the structure of a musical piece, he or she can certainly feel it and imitate the teacher’s A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ playing The teacher has to focus on developing the little pianist’s imagination by making constant associations between musical ideas and the child’s environment: weather phenomena (sunshine, rain, thunder), animals, people and so on Imagining a story that will explain and justify the piece’s structure and its dramatic ‘unfolding’ is a great approach! Analyzing a piece and understanding its message and structure is the first step toward quality phrasing! Vertical Thinking Vs Horizontal Thinking Are you familiar with the concepts of vertical thinking and horizontal thinking? These two different methods of approaching and solving problems can be applied to all areas of human life, including piano playing In music in general and piano playing in particular, it’s especially important to be aware of the difference between horizontal and vertical thinking Both methods have their benefits in piano practice and a good pianist has to know how to use them according to his/her needs However, when we talk about correct phrasing, horizontal thinking should be our priority When I was still studying, my piano and ensemble professors used to tell me: don’t think vertically - think horizontally! In the traditions of the Russian piano school, horizontal thinking has a special place It is another important skill that separates those who achieved some levels of mastery from those who are still taking the first steps in their ‘piano quest’ Let’s dive a little deeper: Thinking vertically means being ‘in the moment’ and seeking solutions according to your present knowledge and resources A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ ... phrases to life in piano playing (or the art of mastering piano phrasing) A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/... Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/ PIANO PHRASING - STEP 1: ANALYZING THE PIECE: KNOW YOUR DESTINATION! OR THE MENTAL LEVEL OF PIANO. .. piano mastery, and - the most important thing - will help you enjoy the entire process! A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved http://www.pianocareer.com/