You may already be familiar with the words like “phrasing,” “dynamics,” maybe even “tempo.” But, when it comes to music, these terms tend to have very specific definitions that normal conversation may not explore; definitions that can shape how a musician expresses themselves.

For example, musical phrasing is how a musician shapes and colours the sequence of notes they play in a passage. They do this to help relay an impression or emotion, and can achieve a stylistic difference from what’s found on the sheet music by changing up the music’s characteristics. Similarly, dynamics are usually marked on sheet music, but usually only the basics are noted. That’s why many professional performers and ensembles will add their own notations as a form of personal interpretation and expression. And finally, the tempo and the time signature, and changing them, can change the entire feeling of a piece.

Let’s dive into each concept further, and find out how they can help any musician better express themselves through music!

What is a Musical Phrase?

While it has other meanings in different areas, when it comes to music, a “phrase” refers to a short section of a musical composition into which the vocal or instrumental part seems to fit naturally. Usually, phrases tend to be four measures long, but they can be either longer or shorter.

Phrases are often completed in a single breath, but sometimes they may be indicated by sub-divisions. You will often find phrase-marks that come in the form of slurs. These slurs help to guide you through the phrasing for that section in the performance.

Of course, phrasing tends to be a little more instinctive. That’s what makes different artists’ performances of essentially the same song sound so vastly different.

Techniques for Musical Phrasing

There are many kinds of techniques for musical phrasing, and as a musician, you’ll be able to make use of these techniques to enhance how you phrase music. Give these a try:

Emphasis

There are a few similarities between storytelling and musical phrasing. Some storytellers barely pause for breath, rushing through to the end. Yet, others are more calculating with their narratives. Musical phrasing can work in a similar fashion, involving the dynamics of slowing down when stressing something important or speeding up to glide over unimportant details.

It’s all about emphasis, and musical phrasing uses is in the same way a storyteller does. You decide when to breathe or pause as you sing. You choose how fast or slow you will play a section. By making those choices you are communicating your own emotions and meaning to your listeners.

Have a Conversation with the Audience

Another technique for musical phrasing is to think of your singing or playing as a literal conversation with your audience. When you have a conversation, you emphasis some words, or alter your intonation – you change your voice so you don’t sound like a monotone robot. You change things up to keep your audience’s attention and interest.

As a performer, you do something similar. You wouldn’t sing or play in a dull monotone and you don’t create notes without giving them shape. Instead, you give the music added shape and meaning by changing up the timing and varying your pitches.

All this adds a bit of personality to whatever you’re playing. By bending each piece to your own distinctive way of phrasing, you add your own touch to it.

Add in Some Narration

We’ve already briefly touched on how storytelling and musical phrasing relate, but it goes a little deeper than what we’ve covered so far. Not only does emphasis and intonation play a huge role in both, so too does narration.

When you read a story you usually follow the punctuation, right? You pause when there is a comma and stop after periods at the end of sentences. To tell a story well, you need to know the story and its punctuation well, as well as how you’re going to narrate each sentence. The best storytellers know the flow of their story before they even start to speak.

In the same way, musical phrasing can make any musical section more exciting, allowing you to narrate the song’s meaning through dynamics, tempo variations, articulation, and vibrato. But like the best storytellers, you can’t phrase a section well unless you know the song well!

What are Dynamics?

Dynamics are the element of music that deals with how loud or soft the sound is played. It also involves the direction of the volume in a phrase or section, and whether it’s getting louder or getting quieter.

They’re one of the key elements of music, and have a lot of influence on a song’s emotional quality and impact.

Dynamics: Terms

When marked on sheet music, dynamics are usually represented by letters that correspond to Italian words for how loud or soft the music should be. The main dynamic symbols are:

• pp – Pianissimo – very soft
• p – Piano – soft
• mp – Mezzo piano – medium-soft
• mf – Mezzo forte – medium-loud
• f – Forte – loud*
• ff – Fortissimo – very loud
• fff – Triple forte – even louder**

*The accurate translation of “forte” is actually “strong.” Many music teachers encourage their pupils to think of “strong” rather than “loud,” which may result in poorer tone quality.

**Though triple-fortes exists, they’re not especially well respected among many musical circles. It’s often thought that the editor or composer either simple didn’t have faith in their ensemble’s ability to play climactic sections with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm, or they actually want volume so high it sacrificed sound quality.

On top of these volume symbols, there’s also crescendo and decrescendo symbols. Crescendo, denoted with a “>” symbol that stretched across a marked phrase, means to start quieter and get louder, usually ending with one of the volume symbols above. Decrescendos are simply the opposite.

What is Tempo?

As you probably already know, tempo is the speed at which a piece of music is played. In general, tempo is can be described in a few different ways, but for our purposed today, we’re going to stick to the self-explanatory “beats per minute” (bpm).

An example might be a tempo notated as 60 bpm would mean exactly one beat per second. A song with a tempo of 120 bpm would be twice as fast, with two beats every second.

What is a Time Signature?

When it comes to musical notation, the time signature is the “meter” of the music throughout the piece. What that means is that it indicates how many beats there are in each measure, and what the value of each beat is. You might also think of the time signature as a “meter signature,” or “measure signature” for this reason.

The Meaning Behind the Numbers

• The top number tells you how many beats are in a measure. This can be basically any number, but it’s usually between 2 and 12.
• The bottom number tells you the length of each beat. A “4” indicates a quarter note, and an 8 would mean an eighth note.

This means that, if the top number is a 4, and the bottom number is a 4, then the time signature is 4/4, which means there are four quarter-note beats in each measure. This happens to be the most common time signature. But anther example would be 6/8, which means there are six eighth notes per measure.

How Do Tempo & Time Signature Relate?

When it comes to musical notation, a beat in the tempo almost always corresponds with the bottom number in a song’s time signature. For example, in a time signature with a 4 on the bottom (2/4, 3/4, 4/4, etc.), the beat corresponds with quarter notes. So, in 4/4, every four beats will take you through a full measure.

How Are Tempo & Time Signature Used in Music?

Tempo, as usually indicated by the bottom number in the time signature, is a key element of any musical performance. In fact, within any piece of music, tempo can be just as important as melody, harmony, rhythm, lyrics, and dynamics.

Classical conductors use different tempos to help make their orchestra’s performance unique from others. That said, most composers, from Mozart to modern day, tend to provide plenty of tempo notations as they write their scores.

Of course, when it comes to film scores, certain tempos can be essential to setting moods. One tempo of particular importance is the “heart rate tempo;” A musical speed that roughly aligns with the human heartbeat, falling in the range of 120 to 130 bpm. Countless hit songs have been written within this tempo range.

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