Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [phrasing]

13 questions
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4 answers

How to quickly play octaves with one hand (piano)?

In some songs there are portions where the melody is made of pairs of notes, where the pair spans a whole octave. Sometimes the melody is played pretty quickly. I'm wondering if there's some technique to playing this instead of just jumping from…
Achintya Agarwal
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What is the rhythmic displacement I hear in the verse of Thriller?

I have long struggled to articulate why I always feel a sense of rhythmic surprise and unease when the verse of Thriller breaks in over the bassline vamp, roughly [0:50 - 1:06] in the song. If you asked me to transcribe how I hear it in my head, I…
modalmixture
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What are some good guidelines for phrasing a melody?

I'm asking this in the rather specific context of me being a non-performer (due to physical disabilities) who wishes to "humanize" the midi files I create using software such as Finale and Logic Pro. For brevity's sake, let's limit our discourse…
Kim Fierens
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Is this phrase ending a half cadence, imperfect authentic cadence, or neither?

I'm working on this for a music theory class. By my analysis: Song is in key of A major The chord for measure three uses the 4th scale degree, or IV The chord for measure four is the tonic, or I I'd say that this phrase ends on a plagal cadence…
Xavier J
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Sustain Pedal connecting Slurs

In this simplified Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 20, the sustain pedal connects notes belonging to two separate slurs in the first and second measures. Should the sustain pedal be left off for a moment before the following slur to "separate" the two…
Qvantvm
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How to write long melodic licks on Guitar?

Please share your method/approach to write long melodic licks/runs/sequences/phrases on your instrument(preferably guitar). I can write short melodic short phrases like in Blues, for example, but having trouble in writing long phrases. It either…
user9339131
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antecedent and consequent phrase in minor scale

MY question is what are the rules for melodic phrasing in minor scales. For example, I know that in a major scale the vii wants to go up to the I and the V can go where ever etc. what are the rules for a minor scales (aeolian, dorian etc.) are they…
user62096
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What are the horizontal lines in this renaissance piece?

In one of the scores of Byrd's Ave verum corpus on CPDL, one notices horizontal lines : What do they mean? Are it a kind of phrasing marks? Were they added by the editor? Edit The Misa de Notre Dame by de Machaut is an other example :
Karlo
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Is there any point to regular phrase lengths?

I have gotten several comments on my scores saying that they would be better if I had regular or at least even numbered phrase lengths. But what is the point of say sticking to 8 bar phrases for a composition? There are plenty of phrases which are…
Caters
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How to set off musical phrases in Schoenberg Op.15 and atonal lieds in general

I've been reading a great dissertion on vocal melody in Schoenberg's Op.15; as far as I understand the author prefers the word 'gesture' rather than 'phrase'. From the writers words; '(...) Moreover, musical gestures like cadences and rests…
Orhan Torun
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Brahms Op. 118 No. 5, "Romanze": interpreting offset phrase markings

In the opening portion of Brahms's "Romanze" (Op. 118, No. 5), the melody is doubled at the octave between the right and left hands, but the corresponding phrase markings are offset from each other. Does this offset hold interpretive significance,…
Aaron
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How do I get in the habit of separating my words while singing?

I sustain all my words together and would like to figure out how fix it. For example if I sung "I can't wait" (quarter note, quarter, half) I would like to separate 'i' and 'can't' but I always leave them sustained and connected.
user82217
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Is there a name for the way George Strait phrases his lines?

When looking at the sheet music I have noticed that most of his phrasing is at the end or beginning of a Measure in a very short choppy line. Is there a name for this style of phrasing? For example, "Amarillo by Morning, the first measure of singing…
hatmanbatman
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