What Is Musical Phrasing?
Here is what Wikipedia thinks:
“a method by which musicians shape a sequence of notes in a passage of music to allow expression, much like when speaking English. A phrase may be written identically but may be played/spoken differently”
And relating this to speaking is quite useful really because there's a reason that people say, "Oh, he can make that guitar talk," about players that are really good, is that music is like a conversation and it wants to have that quality.
Back to Wikipedia:
“you can alter the tone, the tempo, the dynamics, the articulation, the inflection, and other characteristics to change the phrasing”,
So there's lots and lots of variables there,
Let's simplify things and pick out a couple of ways you can play your slide notes that actually incorporate a few of those categories.
Legatto and Staccato - or more simply put long and short notes. Here, I'll take a look at legatto, and then I'll explore staccato next week.
Legato - Long and Flowing
I like to imagine the field holler style when I'm playing in this way - a song that would be sung while picking cotton to pass the time - long and flowing and free time with lots of decoration.
This tune: Motherless Child is a good example:
Now slide playing really lends itself to this approach - long flowing notes that slide into each other. This can create a really vocal expression but to control it takes a bit of practice.
A great way to work on this approach is this 3 note sequence exercise:
Check out the video lesson here : https://youtu.be/2knGYn3ZSFA
Next week, we'll be looking at staccato and you can compare the two!
Take a look at my courses here or grab your FREE Get Going with Slide Guide here to get started.