Teaching Artistry Through Form, Phrasing, Dynamics, Planning, MTNA Conference 2019

Notes from "Teaching Artistry Through Form, Phrasing, Dynamics, Planning", MTNA Conference 2019 

Theresa Bogard, NCTM, University of Wyoming

Teach students to make decisions themselves.  If you always tell a student, they become dependent on you.

Every student has the potential to become musically expressive.

Like all languages, the language of classical music is learned through hearing and repeating.

Some student will speak more eloquently than others, but all can gain some fluency.

What contributes to a less than satisfying performance:

• Technical issues with tonal control
• Balance between hands
• Inadequate weight understanding on single note vs. chord
• Weak melodic voicing
• Poor tone matching
• Heavy phrase endings

Audiation:  External listening

• Record the piece and listen to it.
• Replay the part for student, exaggerating what they did.

Lack of subtlety in interpretation of dynamic markings can make even a technically brilliant interpretation flat.  Notes are always going to and from a dynamic.  No two notes are the same.  Plan dynamics, even with young kids.

Problems with tempo flexibility are one of the most noticeable causes of an unmusical performance--tempo rigidity.   Tempo  rigidity and lack of phrase shaping often go hand in hand.

The lack of forward motion is as bad as rushing.  Music notes need to go somewhere.

Knowledge of phrases is critical.  Use grammar terms:  sense of completion at the end of a period.  Sentences.  Long phrase ends with a period.  A weak antecedent might have a comma connecting it to a consequence.

Ways to shape a phrase (determine phrase length first):

• Louder then softer (can change the loudest point)
• Get louder to the end, or softer to the end.

Try making different phrase shapes at the lesson and make decisions together.

Forward momentum and release of tension are present in all phrases.  Dynamic shaping must be present within each phrase.

Planning phrasing helps students develop their musical taste.  Follow composer's marks.

Here's a well-known (often used) example which can be applied to shaping phrases in music:

1. I never said she stole my money. Meaning they are stressing it was someone else who accused her. Not them.
2. I never said she stole my money. Meaning they are stressing they never ever ever said that.
3. I never said she stole my money. Meaning they never actually accused her of stealing money, or that they actually wrote it instead of speaking.
4. I never said she stole my money. Meaning they never said it was the girl who stole the money, but someone else stole it.
5. I never said she stole my money. Meaning they never said she explicitly stole it, but did something else with it, like borrowed it.
6. I never said she stole my money. Meaning they are stressing it was someone else's money she stole, not theirs.
7. I never said she stole my money. Meaning it wasn't money she stole, but something else.

Ways to find the peak:

• Beginning of 3rd (most common) or 4th measure
• Often the highest note of the phrase
• Or, the moment of greatest tension.

To make a musically interesting piece:

• Repetitions NEVER the same
• Change the dynamics
• Almost every phrase can be altered in at least 2 ways
• Change phrase shape and direction by choosing a different "important" note.