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phrasing

phrasing

1 6.0
How a musician groups and plays notes to shape a melody
  • noun
  • /ˈfreɪzɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : fraseo
  • Rehearsals are focused on musical concepts like phrasing, balance, blend, and intonation.
  • phrasing and rhythm
  • phrasing and articulation
  • phrasing and dynamics

Examples

  • So, the pedagogical applications of solkattu could aid the students in developing a heightened sense of rhythm, phrasing, and musicality.

    Academic text (2013)
  • The conductor emphasized the importance of phrasing to enhance the emotional impact of the music.

  • By hearing a professional musician, students can gain musical understanding of more global concepts such as phrasing and dynamics.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Experienced performers can model appropriate tone, phrasing, and articulations quite readily.

    Academic text (2005)
  • As part of our lesson on musical phrasing, I was teaching a song titled "The Rainbow" from one of the music textbooks.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Combining various dynamics and phrasings can shape and infuse the melody with energy and interest.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Intonation, phrasing, tone quality, rhythmic precision, balance, and the text-music relationship are focused on and perfected for performance.

    Academic text (2001)
  • Change one important musical element through your conducting gestures (e.g., dynamics, tempo, phrasing, style).

    Academic text (2011)
  • In order to convey the song's message effectively, the singer focused on her phrasing during the performance.

  • Musicians often spend hours practicing their phrasing to achieve a more expressive melodic line.

How Phrased

phrasing
  • Specialized
1 6.0

Surface Forms

phrasing singular
phrasings plural

Morphology

phrasing = phrase (semi-transparent) = phrase + ing

The word is built transparently from phrase + -ing, but the musical grouping sense is a specialized extension that is not fully predictable for all learners.

Etymology

Phrasing comes from the word phrase, which comes from the Greek phrasis meaning 'speech'. In music a phrase is like a short sentence of notes, so musical phrasing is how you group and shape those note-sentences to make the tune expressive.