Phrasing Technique for Piano

Good phrasing technique does not come easily and naturally, even to gifted students. Piano teachers constantly must show students how to drop on the beginning of a phrase and lift the wrist at the conclusion of the phrase. The result is a musical sound that is something like taking a breath in singing.

To teach phrasing, begin with short slurred groupings. Piano instruction should include a "down-up" wrist movement. The down movement is on the first note (usually the strong beat) and the up movement is on the last note (often a weak beat). Second year students will find a variety of phrases which will include a combination of slurred and staccato groups.

Sometimes it helps for the student to verbalize or say out loud the phrasing: "down-up" for surs, and "up" for staccato notes. By saying the phrasing aloud the student will become aware of the correct hand motion for each technique.

Because of the complexity of hand motions and coordination problems in a piece that combines staccato with phrasing, the difficulty of such a combination is usually late second year or third year for students. Compositions of this type are excellent pre-literature studies for teaching various motions of piano technique. Piano teachers should assign a number of pieces like this before and even during the time standard piano literature is being assigned.

In combination studies, each hand should be studied independently (hands separate). By saying the phrasing in each hand, the student can begin to acquire the needed skills and feeling for the correct interpretation of these basics. Depending on the piece, it is possible to combine some counting with phrasing (down-up). Be sure the student phrases (lifts) both hands together when both treble and bass end on a phrase. The release of both hands should be simultaneous just like the individual voices in a choir.

The ability to play one hand staccato and the other legato simultaneously becomes increasingly more important for the correct performance of pre-literature pieces and some of the easier classical pieces. The main difficulty for students when first combining these two touches is coordination. Both hands "want" to do the same thing at the same time, and each hand must be trained to function independently.

For more information about piano lessons Millington, please contact Barbara Ehrlich Piano Studio.