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Phrasing Part 2: Thinking in Terms of The Phrase

by Darren Shahinian

There are countless way in which phrasing can be applied to the various needs of musicians, yet it is one of the least pursued tools in music. Because of this, there are countless musicians who are forced to remain at a level just below what they can really achieve. Phrasing helps in areas such as: improvisation, songwriting, speed, self-expression, and even playing/improvising or counting odd time signatures. Because it can apply to such a wide range of musical attributes, it is absolutely necessary that all musicians be adequate in this area.

You may be asking yourselves, as many others have asked me before, how phrasing can apply to all of these areas. As far as your improvising and songwriting, phrasing is one of your biggest tools. Phrasing is the key to self-expression; being able to phrase your ideas to your liking is how you can put your creativity to use and separate yourself from other musicians. Please see part one of this series, “Phrasing Part 1: Your Personal Expression”, for more in these areas.

There are questions I have been asked many times when discussing this topic. How can phrasing and speed go hand in hand? Can I really build speed or make my playing cleaner with phrasing? In order to answer these questions I had ask them, as I will ask you now, to look at phrasing from a different angle.

There seems to be a common misconception amongst many musicians that speed is acquired solely by advancing your technique. Technical exercises are certainly a large factor in obtaining or enhancing speed, but there are other methods that are equally important and affective. In the previous article we looked at what we could add to our phrases in order to find new means of expression. The focus was on the individual notes and ideas that made up those phrases. Lets now shift the focus onto the phrases as a whole structure, and look at the concept from another angle. The new concept is thinking in terms of the phrase. What I want to get you to think about is how you can shift your focus from individual notes to entire phrases. This is important for many reasons. By doing so you will be able to keep your phrases precisely in time with the music (as you see fit). This does not mean that your phrases will always start and stop on the same counts in each measure. That is certainly something you want to avoid. What it will do however is eliminate the choppiness that you here in many solos and songs. You want to avoid sounding as though every time you finish a phrase, you have to take the time to construct a new one in your head and then mechanically perform what your brain tells you. Thinking in terms of the phrase eliminates a lot of that time, thus creating fewer and more organized breaks and smoother connection of phrases. Being comfortable with the different techniques you can apply to your phrases is immensely important, and is why it was discussed in the first installment of this series. Once your brain has memorized these, as well as other tools (such as different scales and sequences, arpeggios, ect.) it will become second nature for you to physically perform these tasks. Essentially it is muscle memorization, and the idea that if you do something for an extended period of time, your body will physically become accustomed to doing it. So when you have all these things down in your arsenal of musical weapons, you can simply think of the phrase, and your body will act accordingly.

Now that this has been established, I can begin to better explain exactly how this will benefit you. Record yourself playing a simple chord progression (or have a friend play one for you). Stick to one key for the purposes of this example. Improvise over the progression while focusing on the individual notes that you are playing (as most guitarists do), and record it on something as simple as a tape deck. In this example don’t shy away from playing fast. Play some quick scale runs and sequences, and keep in mind that right now it is VERY IMPORTANT that you focus on the notes individually. Do this for about three minutes or so. Now lets try it again, only this time focus on the phrases as a whole. You should be able to develop the next phrase in your mind before the one you are performing ends. Know what you are going to do before you get there. It will be hard at first and will take a long time to develop, but you will see some immediate results. When you think in terms of the phrase, the individual notes fall into place naturally, and will seem more fluent. Go back and listen to each recording. In the second recording you should be able to notice that the phrases have more fluent transitions, and that there is less “choppiness” not only between phrases but between the notes as well.

Thinking in terms of the phrase also bears other benefits as well. It allows you to keep your phrases more in time. When you think of the entire phrase, you will know its starting point and ending point. Since you know how long you want the duration of the phrase to be as well as an idea of the phrase you want to play, the notes will fall into place naturally on their own. A good example of how this help is with cramming, or in other words fitting more notes into a phrase than what would normally fit rhythmically. Lets say you have a 13-note run that you want to fit in a two beat timeframe. It would be a subdividing nightmare to try and mathematically fit the awkward phrase evenly in that timeslot. If you think of the notes individually, you will more than likely do one of two things. Rush the run and finish too early, or drag and end too late. If you think of the 13-note phrase as a whole and focus on the two beat timeslot, your body will automatically perform the phrase as your brain fits it in the time interval. The individual note duration will be the same throughout, and the phrase will actually sound cleaner. Also notice that because you are able to spend less time and energy with the notes individually, you will be able to play not only cleaner but faster.

As you can see, by looking at phrasing from a different perspective, you are able to further advance yourself in areas in which you thought may have reached their peak in terms of the use of other methods. Thinking in terms of the phrase is a concept that will take time to get used to, so try not to get too frustrated if progress is slow. Remember that slow progress is still progress!

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