Ilinca Vartic A New Perspective On Piano Phrasing Second Edition Chapter 1

A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing
by Ilinca Vartic
Second Revised Edition
This is NOT a free eBook!
The real price of this book is $47. You have been given one complimentary copy to keep on your computer only as a bonus for
subscribing to PianoCareer.com.
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Copyright © 2019 PianoCareer.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.
The articles in this book are for educational purposes only.

The intent of the author is to offer information and advice that will help you understand and develop the art of piano phrasing. Nothing in this
book should be considered personalized piano practice advice. If you have questions or comments, please submit them in the comment
sections on PianoCareer.com (or contact the author via email, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn). In the event you use any of the information in
this book for yourself, the author assumes no responsibility for your actions.
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FOREWORD
Piano playing doesn’t have to be a continuous struggle. It doesn’t have to be boring,
lifeless - and it certainly doesn’t have to be painful and full of stress.
Piano playing has to be a lifestyle. A lifestyle that will allow you to create, to express
yourself, to find your balance and your unique place in this world. A lifestyle that you
will truly enjoy!
There are many things - I call them magic ingredients - that can bring a spark of life and
a sense of fulfillment to your daily practice and your performances. One of them is
correct phrasing.
Unfortunately, phrasing is often neglected or misinterpreted by most piano beginners

and intermediates (and even their teachers). However, this little ingredient can make
the difference between a mechanical, raw and boring performance - and a beautiful,
meaningful and captivating one.
Piano phrasing is not difficult: things only seem difficult when we lack proper
information. Phrasing gets easy and fun once you understand the basics! That’s what I
plan to do in this eBook – reveal the basics of correct phrasing and spice up the recipe
with several secrets that will considerably simplify your practice!
For writing this book, I synthesized:
• the phrasing principles used in the Russian piano school for achieving a flowing
performance full of awareness, inspiration and musicality;
• some useful insights from the Western musical tradition;
• the experience of my wonderful piano teachers - Lia Oxinoit and Ludmila
Vaverco;
• and, of course, all the phrasing tricks and secrets that I learned the hard way
during 32 years of studying and playing piano, and 15 years of teaching.
The eBook is structured as a step-by-step guide with many examples, metaphors,

images and exercises. I hope that it will offer you a new perspective on piano playing,
show you the way to a new level of piano mastery, and - the most important thing - help
you enjoy the entire process!
A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing by Ilinca Vartic © Copyright 2019, All Rights Reserved
http://www.pianocareer.com/
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PHRASE AND PHRASING

UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE
When words leave off, music begins.

~Heinrich Heine
Have you ever witnessed a 3-year-old kid reciting a poem?
Yes, he is probably really sweet - but he pronounces the words mechanically, without
understanding the meaning of each sentence. He takes breaths between lines or
whenever comfortable, not taking into account the beginning and end of each idea.
Have you noticed that the same thing happens with most piano beginners (and even
intermediate students)?
Just like poems (or other types of written and spoken text), musical works are formed of
certain thoughts and ideas - musical phrases - that together form a piece: a Sonata, an
Etude, a Prelude, a Fugue, a Nocturne and even a complex Symphony movement.
In the realm of music theory, there are many definitions of a musical phrase. These
definitions usually sound like this one: A musical phrase is a succession of notes (or even
motifs and figures) that has a complete musical sense.
For an easier understanding, we can always compare a musical phrase with a spoken or
written sentence. A sentence is a thought, an idea that is expressed via our language. A
musical phrase is also a thought or an idea - the only difference is that it’s expressed via
musical language: sound and silence, rhythm and dynamics, and an infinite variation of
pitches and timbres. However, as many poets, philosophers and musicians noticed
throughout history - the music’s power of expression goes far beyond the possibilities of
our verbal language.
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When you’re 3 years old, it’s normal to be unaware of the meaning of a certain sentence
or phrase. However, as you get older, you begin to speak with awareness, modeling
your intonation and making logical accents (or pauses) according to the meaning of the
idea you’re trying to communicate.
In musical performance, this is the essence of phrasing: it’s the ability of the performer
to express a musical phrase, to shape it, to bring it to life and transform it into a
convincing meaningful message with a clear structure (beginning, culminating point and
ending) by using the specific technical possibilities of the instrument (may it be piano,
violin or oboe).
So, in playing an instrument, phrasing is also a special technique (personally, I think of it

as an art) that allows the performer to transform the notes written in the score into
musical sentences.
Phrases are present in all kinds of music, regardless of style and genre: instrumental and
vocal, baroque and classical, romantic and impressionist, folklore and pop... even the
experimental atonal music of the XXth century has its specific phrases!
Musical phrases exist whether you can understand and express them or not.
My eBook is dedicated to the art of bringing these phrases to life in piano playing (or
the art of piano phrasing).
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SHORT INTRODUCTION:
TWO LEVELS OF MUSICAL PHRASING
The ability to express a musical phrase resides simultaneously on two levels - mental
and physical.
On the mental level, phrasing is the art of visualization.
It is the capacity to see ahead of you, to imagine HOW a musical idea (phrase) should
sound before actually playing it. It also means visualizing the outline (shape) of the
phrase - knowing where it begins, where it leads (its culminating point), and where it
ends.
On the physical level, phrasing is the art of making your vision come true. It comprises
the knowledge and the skills that allow you to transfer the visualized phrase to the
instrument, so that what you imagined becomes a reality.
To make a comparison - it means thinking before you speak, and then speaking by using
the speed, intonation and attitude that best match your thoughts and your intentions!
This way, you’ll avoid saying something stupid and you’ll make sure that your thought is
delivered to the listener in a comprehensible manner. Simply put, in order to express a
thought, you have to know what to say and how to speak.
In time and with enough practice, we learn (or at least we should learn!) to do both
things simultaneously. In the end, these skills are two inseparable parts of a whole - our
ability to express ourselves. The same can be said about music!
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PIANO PHRASING - STEP 1:

ANALYZING THE PIECE: KNOW YOUR DESTINATION!
OR
THE MENTAL LEVEL OF PIANO PHRASING
A Little Story: Avoid Learning a Piece the Hard Way!
Most things in life are much easier than they seem. Piano playing is not an exception.
However, we (humans) have this annoying tendency of doing things the hard way: we
complicate everything and then we complain about lack of time, excessive difficulties
and stress.
How does this relate to piano phrasing?
Before diving into the depths and particularities of phrasing, let me give you an example
- a little story that will probably sound extremely familiar:
Imagine that you have been assigned a new piece. What do you usually do? You go home (or to
a practice room), you sit at the piano, you place the score in front of you and you start reading
the piece by taking it one note at a time.
Such an approach is similar to hacking your way through an unknown jungle with a big knife,
without even knowing if you’re headed in the right direction! Yes, eventually you will find a
clearing or even the end of the jungle, but you’ll lose lots of time and effort in the process!
Avoid doing things the hard way! Playing piano is not easy, but we certainly don’t have
to make it more complicated than it is!
For a better understanding, let’s take a closer look at the usual steps of the ‘hard way’ method,
which is unfortunately still being ‘practiced’ by many piano students:
➢ Sight-reading the notes (hands separately for beginners, hands together for advanced
players). Please pay attention: I’m not saying ‘sight-reading the musical text’. The text is
a complex term that includes notes, rhythm, durations, rests, fingering, dynamics,
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articulation, character, pedal... I’m saying ‘sight-reading the notes’ - which means
figuring out where the notes are on the keyboard and ‘hitting’ them (without thinking
about all the other elements of the text).
➢ Learning the text in a mechanical manner, without thinking about its meaning: you
repeat the notes many times, until you can play them on ‘auto-pilot’ - a boring process
that feels like walking around in a dark room and trying to memorize your steps.
➢ Going to class, where the teacher has to correct all your mistakes: many wrong notes,
incorrect fingering, inaccurate rhythm... not to mention the inexistent dynamics,
articulation or sound balance!
➢ Going home and trying to correct these mistakes... which is not an easy process,
because your fingers have already memorized everything the wrong way!
➢ Fighting with your old habits, and repeating your mechanical mistakes each time your
mind wanders... then remembering to look in the score from time to time, where your
mistakes have been marked with fat red circles by your teacher…
➢ Getting tired of this frustrating process - especially when you have to learn several such
pieces for your next exam - and taking a break... which can last many days (after all,
you’re so busy!).
You lose several weeks or even months trying to figure out the text and (hopefully) the
dynamics/articulation. When you take a look at the calendar, you see that your exam is in two
weeks!!! Panicked, you start to push your way through the text even harder, attempting to
memorize it as fast as possible, so you can play it without mistakes at the exam.
The result is not hard to imagine: frustration, anxiety, headaches, hand injuries related to
incorrect practice... and the list can go on!
Does this situation sound familiar? Or, if you’re a teacher, do most of your students
suffer from this ‘piano condition’?
Of course, in such circumstances it’s difficult to talk about sound quality, musical
expression or learning the art of phrasing.
Now, let’s make things easier!
Fortunately, there is an easy way of avoiding this incorrect method of learning a piano
piece. I will give this method a simple name - “Before going to the jungle, find or draw a
map!”
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Usually, things are even easier than that: the composer already did this job for you!
Each musical score (especially if it’s written by a great composer) is a well-structured
map: all you have to do is open your eyes (initially - with the help of your teacher) and
learn how to follow its directions! Guess what – by doing this before diving head-first
into reading the notes, you will make your life much easier!
Here’s what I mean:
If you’re a teacher, don’t tell your student to read an unknown piece without playing it
for him/her first. Even before playing, analyze the piece together: explain a few things
about the epoch, the composer and his style, about the artistic concept and message of
this particular piece, about its main characters and structure. Before sending the
student home to practice, show him/her HOW to read the piece. It’s even better to
begin reading it during the lesson, and allowing the student to continue at home. In
other words - draw a map of the musical piece!
If you’re a student (or you’re learning to play piano by yourself), don’t start reading a
piece without at least looking at it from beginning to end, and trying to understand the
main elements: message, character, tempo, rhythm, dynamics and structure! Listening
to a good recording while looking in the score is even better (especially for beginners) -
this way you’ll learn how to make direct associations between what is written and how
it sounds. After listening to a recording or to your teacher, you’ll know how this piece
should sound even before playing the first note! This will dramatically increase your
learning speed, allowing you to concentrate on important things like sound quality and
phrasing!
In case of small children, this process has to be focused on intuitive feelings rather than
rational understanding. Even though the child is not capable (yet) of understanding the
structure of a musical piece, he or she can certainly feel it and imitate the teacher’s
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playing. The teacher has to focus on developing the little pianist’s imagination by
making associations between musical ideas and the child’s environment: weather
phenomena (sunshine, rain, thunder), animals, people and so on. Imagining a story
behind the music that explains the structure of the piece is a great approach!
Analyzing a piece and understanding its message and structure is the first step toward
good phrasing!
Vertical Thinking Vs Horizontal Thinking
Are you familiar with the concepts of vertical thinking and horizontal thinking? These
two different methods of approaching and solving problems can be applied to all areas
of human life, including piano playing.
In music in general and piano playing in particular, it’s especially important to be aware
of the difference between horizontal and vertical thinking.
Both methods have their benefits in piano practice, and a good pianist must know how
to use them according to his/her needs. However, when we talk about correct
phrasing, horizontal thinking should be our priority.
When I was still studying, my piano and ensemble professors used to tell me: don’t think
vertically - think horizontally! In the Russian piano school, horizontal thinking has a
special place. It is an important skill that separates those who achieved a certain level of
mastery from those who are still taking the first steps of their ‘piano quest’.
Let’s dive a little deeper:
Thinking vertically means being ‘in the moment’ and seeking solutions according to your
present knowledge and resources.
9
In playing a certain piece, this can be a positive skill (focusing on a difficult fragment and
practicing it until it sounds perfect) and also a big obstacle (playing each note or bar
without seeing where the phrase is headed, and without understanding its meaning and
structure).
The vertical approach has great results when it comes to overcoming technical
difficulties. I usually tell my students: Take this fragment, put it under the ‘magnifying
glass’ and practice it until it ‘sparkles’! Still, vertical thinking is detrimental when it
comes to phrasing: it means playing blindly, statically, hitting each note and chord as
they appear in the score without connecting them in bigger phrases; it also means
playing without the guidance of your inner hearing, without trying to feel how the
phrase unfolds and develops. It can be compared to walking (or even driving!) without
seeing the road in front of you!
Thinking horizontally means going beyond what you see or what you know, seeing
things in perspective, understanding deeper meanings, reaching new horizons, building a
bridge between the present and the future. It is also the capacity of seeing the bigger
picture despite all the difficult details that tend to catch and monopolize our attention.
In piano playing, it means imagining and hearing the entire phrase before playing it. It
also means being aware that each phrase has a certain destination, and that you need
to create an uninterrupted musical flow towards this destination. It is also the ability of
thinking ahead even while you play, so that your fingers always follow the mental image
(and not the other way around!).
Your mind must be one step (or even several steps!) ahead of your fingers! Don’t allow
them to take over - this usually ends up badly.
10
On a side note: Metaphors and mental associations are very useful in teaching and playing
piano. Here’s an example that (I hope) will give you a better understanding of this subject:
If we compare music with water, then vertical thinking (and vertical playing) is a pond with
stale water; horizontal thinking (and playing), on the other hand, is a river that flows freely. The
river doesn’t skip or miss any details in its journey; at the same time, it knows that the ocean
awaits ahead.
How to Build a Mental Image of a New Piano Piece
It’s not possible to ‘shape’ a phrase on the piano without building a mental image of the
piece first.
1. Listen to one or several good recordings. Please don’t listen to amateur recordings
on YouTube if your purpose is to learn - life is too short for that! Learn only from the
best - from great professional pianists! Fortunately, YouTube abounds in very good
recordings as well. Also, ask your teacher to play the entire piece (or separate
fragments) each time you need to refresh your memory about how it should sound.
2. Analyze the ‘dramaturgy’* of the piece and its message: What do you think the
composer wanted to express in this piece? What are the main images, ideas and
characters? How are they evolving? Can you identify a ‘storyline’? What feelings should
this piece transmit to the audience? Is there a main idea or a conclusion? Or maybe a
deeper philosophical message?
For example, pre-classical composers (especially Bach) express transcendental values in

their works: God, the universal balance, wisdom, enlightenment, morality, compassion
and serenity; classical composers (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) gradually ‘refocus’ their
attention towards the human mind, its rationality and symmetry; the romantic era
(Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt) explores the depths and antagonisms of the human
heart - conflicting feelings, intense emotions, unattainable ideals; the impressionists
capture ‘frozen’ moments in time - an image from nature, a human temperament or a
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mythological character. [Little exercise: can you identify such images in Debussy’s or
Ravel’s works?]. This list can go on towards post-romanticism, expressionism and so on,
and I’m sure that each of you can come up with other interesting examples!
*A little explanation: In the Russian piano school, we use words such as dramaturgy or dramatic
unfolding for describing the ‘story’ behind a certain piece: the various musical
images/characters, their conflicts and development, the culminations, conclusions etc.
3. Identify each phrase. After forming a clear image of the piece as a whole, it’s time to
go a little deeper. If the piece is short (1 or 2 pages), you can simply identify each phrase
(first, with the help of your teacher, who will also explain how to identify a phrase). If
the piece is more complex (a Sonata, a polyphonic piece or even a longer romantic
work), then you need to proceed from big fragments to smaller ones until you identify
each phrase. Don’t forget that phrases, in their turn, can be made up of smaller motifs.
4. Analyze each phrase, starting from the beginning of the piece and working your way
to the end. Now that you have a clear image of the general structure, you can
concentrate on smaller details. Even the shortest phrases (comprising 1 or 2 bars) have
a certain ‘shape’ (we can also call it ‘topography’ or ‘outline’). Make sure you identify its
beginning, destination (or culminating point) and ending. You should also get a clear
feeling of the flow of the phrase.
Because it is rather difficult to explain this term - the flow of a phrase - in written words, I will
share another metaphor that will help you to understand what I mean.
Again, let’s learn from water. A river flows relentlessly and implacably: it never stops and it
never rests - not until it reaches the sea. When we watch a river, we have a feeling of constant
motion toward something: the river is headed in a certain direction, it is going somewhere! In
playing a phrase, we should have the same feeling - a constant movement toward the
culminating point, a perpetual sense of inner motion (even if the tempo is slow), a sensation
that our hearing (and our arms) are being pulled forward by a strange force of gravity, until we
reach the end of the phrase. At this point, you may ask: But how do we do this? How do we
transfer this inner feeling to the instrument? This is the topic of the next subchapter!
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Exercise
(for intermediate and advanced piano students)
Develop your score reading and imagination simultaneously! Take new scores (pieces
that you never heard before) and read them with your eyes - without the instrument.
Try to imagine, as best you can, how this music sounds. Play it in your mind, create a
convincing musical image - and then listen to the recording. Remember that imagination
and analytic abilities are extremely important for any musician!
Short Conclusion
(again, with metaphors)
A new piece is like an unexplored jungle. When you’re lost in the middle of an
unknown territory without a clear sense of direction, you stumble on each tree stump
while blindly searching for a way out. If you can’t read your map (the piano score)
properly, if you don’t have a view from above and a sense of perspective, nothing really
makes sense - it’s just a bunch of trees, bushes and dangerous creatures. You can’t see
the forest for the trees!
Phrasing is about seeing the forest, not the trees! If we go even deeper, it’s about
knowing that each individual tree belongs to a bigger structure - the forest. In music, it’s
about being aware that each individual note, chord or motif is an inseparable part of the
bigger structure - the phrase. Each phrase, in its turn, is also an inseparable part of the
whole - the piano piece.

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A New Perspective on Piano Phrasing

Second Revised Edition

This is NOT a free eBook!

Copyright © 2019 PianoCareer.com

The articles in this book are for educational purposes only.

Unfortunately, phrasing is often neglected or misinterpreted by most piano beginners

For writing this book, I synthesized:

The eBook is structured as a step-by-step guide with many examples, metaphors,

PHRASE AND PHRASING

When words leave off, music begins.

Have you ever witnessed a 3-year-old kid reciting a poem?

So, in playing an instrument, phrasing is also a special technique (personally, I think of it

On the mental level, phrasing is the art of visualization.

PIANO PHRASING - STEP 1:

A Little Story: Avoid Learning a Piece the Hard Way!

How does this relate to piano phrasing?

Now, let’s make things easier!

Here’s what I mean:

Vertical Thinking Vs Horizontal Thinking

Let’s dive a little deeper:

How to Build a Mental Image of a New Piano Piece

For example, pre-classical composers (especially Bach) express transcendental values in

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