The Thread of Phrase

Do you create your phrases out of twine? Or out of velvety silk? What does that even mean? And what is Spring Cleaning in practice? All that and more, right here!
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Charles Szczepanek is an international prize-winning pianist, has collaborated with GRAMMY Award winners, and has taught music for over 20 years to everyone from his next-door neighbor to finalists on NBC's America's Got Talent. Through Pianist Academy, he now brings that wealth of knowledge to you: the beginner, the intermediate, the professional, or the fellow music teacher.
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[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I'm not a musician, but I started piano last year at 65 yoa. I had 3 level one method books, Faber, La Méthode Rose and later I bought a John Thompson in French. I told my teacher that i was frustrated that I wasn't musical, and I opened up LMR to page one last week and started like a beginner. I treated every exercise like a grand piece (isn't it one) and am a little over halfway to finishing them. I started in the Thompson book also. My teacher noticed a change in my sightreading ability in that short time. This video is the perfect lesson to start into a musical rebirth. Merci.

[@PianistAcademy1]

You are welcome, and best wishes for newfound sight-reading skills and musicality!

[@stephenscottbrewer5184]

Super well-done, Charles! Thanks for all the lessons & tips you share! I've decided to prepare a recital for April and your video is a welcome reminder of just how important it is to reflect consciously & deliberately on phrasing. Thanks!

[@PianistAcademy1]

Thanks for watching, Stephen! I'd love to hear what you're working on... always feel free to submit something to the bi-weekly Q&A streams on here!

[@serwoolsley]

One might do all this automatically but i'm sure putting these concepts into words is very hard, thanks charles

[@JoeLinux2000]

A great lesson on the importance of working on real well crafted music as opposed to finger exercises with very little musical value. Why don't you create a short solo piano version of this beautiful composition? I was working on a considerably abridged version (by me) of the Percy Granger arrangement.

[@PianistAcademy1]

I'll have to add that to my "short list" of classical works to arrange. I'm not a huge fan of shortening great works, especially if every note the composer put on paper is truly meaningful. That's part of the reason I've been sticking with mostly relatively short arias and usually adding intros and interludes to them. But I'll let the idea simmer!

[@JoeLinux2000]

@@PianistAcademy1 In my opinion it's almost impossible to improve upon the work of truly great composers. What you can do, and what I do is abridge their work into shorter compositions which maintain the original character, but are more realizable by an average pianist. What is a perfect arrangement for you, might not be very good for me. I think more of creating appeal for an average audience. I have met very intelligent people people who didn't like Oscar Peterson at all, because they felt he plays too many notes. Believe it not, Yuja Wang simplifies some of what she plays, at least in one of her encore pieces. If you do something that was not originally for piano, it obvious you can take more liberties. Being a jazz guy, I've never bought into the idea that you must carry out the exact intent of the composer without any deviation. In the end music is an interpretive art. I think that's the idea you are trying to get across in this lesson in the first place. Check this out at 7:00 minuets in: kzbin.info/www/bejne/inW9iH-GbLmaeK8

[@hetedeleambacht6608]

My rep today was the Beauty and the Beast Theme, sorry I m a sucker for Disney Classics.very beautiful lines you can make there too, ..............Bit of sight read practise as well, i m more playing snippets then the whole piece (its actually too difficult for me at this stage, playing 4 note octave in right hand, i cannot stretch that yet), but o do I enjoy the beautiful chord progressions and voicings....very sentimental yes.........and ofcourse I (try to) sing along!

[@PianistAcademy1]

I love Disney too! Have fun! If you haven't heard my own arrangement of the Theme from Beauty and the Beast, check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmO0aGyVoKacpdU

[@hetedeleambacht6608]

o great, the first unlinked version of the piece!! So disconnected.....it made me laugh, seems even hard to do...!

[@PianistAcademy1]

🤣

[@bethanywakim6175]

Great lesson - I liked that you included that we need to be careful we don’t go overboard with the “stretching” (guilty!). I remember in my high school lessons, I struggled in see-sawing between timid playing and over-expression. It takes a lot of practice to keep the thread smooth. Currently working on Debussy’s “the snow is dancing”, which is proving tricky on a number of levels!

[@PianistAcademy1]

Practice and developing an ear for hearing rubato! One of my teachers used to be astounded with how far I was able to pull phrases without breaking the motion. We used to work on making things a little more straightforward to learn and understand that sometimes a more direct approach is good, but so often he'd kind of chuckle and be a bit stunned.

[@BarnieSnyman]

Such a piece of musical magic by Rachmaninoff!

[@PianistAcademy1]

Yes, mostly rubato talk here, with an understanding that rubato is necessary and makes music human, while a misunderstanding of push and pull can lead to very inhuman music-making. To comment on your comment... Yes, more often than not, the larger the ensemble the less rubato. My own conducting teachers would tell me that working with an orchestra is like trying to push a semi-truck... it takes a LOT and a LONG time to make incremental changes when the ensemble is so large. But I've also noticed that it directly relates to the conductor themselves and the amount of rehearsal that an ensemble gets. Many professional groups have very little time to rehearse, and while the front handful of players might be fantastic, the rest of the group aren't necessarily "soloist" level players. But in groups like the NY Phil, or Berlin Phil, etc... the entire orchestra is all capable of having a solo career (and many do). In those ensembles, we usually find a greater exploration of rubato for large ensemble. In my own experience working with the Phoenix Chorale... a chamber choir of about 30 so not large but not small like King's Singers... the previous director, Charles Bruffy, used more rubato than I had ever heard in choral music. The music really felt like it was living and breathing phrase by phrase. And the group was so phenomenal that every single consonant was still precisely placed by each vocalist. They won 3 Grammys under his direction, and I had the honor of performing with them on a concert weekend that was also broadcast on radio. Personally, I'll take more rubato over less any day, which you've probably heard in my own playing haha. The few exceptions for me are some of the baroque dances and pieces that are supposed to be machine-like precise, like toccatas. I'm especially careful of excessive rubato in Ravel and Prokofiev, composers who were highly influenced by watch and toy-making (Ravel) and the sounds of factories (Prokofiev).

[@hetedeleambacht6608]

Yes!!! I see quite some of the overrubatoed playing on Yoitube, like....what is the meter?! Great examples, it coincides with theater speaking and elocution lessions, placing commas, taking a breath....musical phrasing is so much linked to (eloquent) human speech, Perhaps the last example can serve as way to express sort of a drunken or sleepwalking state??........😂

[@PianistAcademy1]

Love all of your analogies here!

[@serwoolsley]

One might do all this automatically but i'm sure putting these concepts into words is very hard, thanks charles

[@PianistAcademy1]

I haven't met too many who truly go from step 2 to 3!