A phrase can perhaps be best described as a musical sentence. Phrases can be long, extending over many bars of music, or short, lasting only a few beats. And just like a spoken sentence, phrases are often separated by a breath, or at least a feeling of a breath. The ends of musical phrases can imply the punctuation of a written one: commas, periods, question marks, exclamation marks can all be heard in music. Musicians who play with a good sense of phrasing communicate a feeling of beginning, middle and end to each phrase they play.<\/p>\n
These may be challenging concepts to explain in words to a four-year-old, but children can easily experience phrasing in movement. At first, they are given musical or dramatic cues to encourage them to stop \u2013 something they are not always inclined to do on their own. Imagery can also play a role: this time of year, in any given class, snowflakes are apt to drift out of clouds and roll from one drift to another as we transition between activities.<\/p>\n
The image of a horse and rider is very powerful for young children, as anyone who has witnessed a room full of children galloping with complete abandon can verify. Since the very first class we have been riding to songs that gallop such as “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain”. They are practiced in pulling the reins to stop the animal, and so now their attention can be brought to the places in the song that feel like the horse is taking a pause. Very astute groups will be able, after a while, to notice when the horse galloped for a long time as opposed to a short time. Their awareness of phrasing will enable us to explore larger forms in the coming weeks. We have also applied the concept to a song called, \u201cWho Stole My Chickens and My Hens\u201d, which you may have heard your child singing recently. In this song, rests of varying lengths separate the phrases. While the children are singing they walk around. During the rests, they pause to look for their lost chickens. As the year goes on, they will be given opportunities to find ways to initiate, continue and stop movements on their own. This, to me at least, is one of the essences of improvisation. In future posts, I’ll address some of the ways I attempt to transfer the work into the playing of simple percussion instruments.<\/p>\n
A more challenging exercise asks the students to stand in their own space, while one student delivers a ball to another during a phrase of a song. Many skills are required here, not the least of which is standing still until it is your turn to move with the ball! But to perform this game well, students must have a clear sense of the arc of each phrase, as they have to decide whether to walk to someone near or far depending on the length of the particular phrase.\u00a0 The five and six-year-olds will work on this exercise to an Irish lullaby called “Cucanandy”, which has a short-short-long pattern of phrasing. This year, I have used the \u201cCuckoo\u201d movement from Saint Seans’ Carnival of the Animals <\/i>to illustrate phrasing. In this short magicall piece, a cuckoo calls out at the end of each phrase. We walk quietly through the forest, stopping to point out near and far birds as we go.<\/p>\n
Besides having their attention drawn to one of the most pleasurable aspects of music, the work has obvious application to instrumental work. For example, a violinist or cellist performs a version of the ball game each time she puts the bow to the string. The Dalcroze work allows the students to experience on a large canvas what must eventually be made small.
\nJanuary, 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A phrase can perhaps be best described as a musical sentence. Phrases can be long, extending over many bars of music, or short, lasting only a few beats. And just like a spoken sentence, phrases are often separated by a breath, or at least a feeling of a breath. The ends of musical phrases can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[113,121,94],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dalcroze-reference","tag-children","tag-children-subjects","tag-early-childhood"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9ohMj-phrasing","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":161,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/reinforcing-the-classwork-at-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":0},"title":"Reinforcing the Classwork at Home","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"November 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dalcroze classes are now in full swing (ok, pun intended), and the kids have heard and experienced music with a variety of tempos, rhythms, and dynamics. They\u00a0 have been encouraged to express those changes in movement. Children naturally learn in many different ways. Some like to watch in class\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/swan1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/program-notes-from-premier-of-one-musicianone-magician-march-2010\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":1},"title":"Program Notes from Premier of One Musician\/One Magician, March 2010","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"July 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Program Notes Welcome to the maiden voyage of One Musician\/One Magician! For the past several months, Jeff and I have been amusing ourselves by exploring the intersections of our respective arts, and we are delighted to present some of our findings today. Our primary goal is to create music you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Projects"","block_context":{"text":"Projects","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/projects\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15604,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/dynamics\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":2},"title":"Dynamics","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"September 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I wonder if some of the other musical subjects are envious of \u2018dynamics\u2019. It\u2019s very name sounds like a superpower. How about the others? \u2018Duration\u2019 sounds world weary; \u2018Augmentation\/diminution\u2019 feels like a medical procedure. \u2018Meter\u2019 sounds like something a bureaucrat made up. But \u2018dynamics\u2019? It\u2019s very name is brimming with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/cpsess1042171136\/frontend\/paper_lantern\/filemanager\/2023\/09\/a8fe9149-0eb2-4ea2-965f-970e47eada6d.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/cpsess1042171136\/frontend\/paper_lantern\/filemanager\/2023\/09\/a8fe9149-0eb2-4ea2-965f-970e47eada6d.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/cpsess1042171136\/frontend\/paper_lantern\/filemanager\/2023\/09\/a8fe9149-0eb2-4ea2-965f-970e47eada6d.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/cpsess1042171136\/frontend\/paper_lantern\/filemanager\/2023\/09\/a8fe9149-0eb2-4ea2-965f-970e47eada6d.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/a-basic-structure-for-4-5-year-old-dalcroze-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":3},"title":"A Basic Structure for 4-5 year-old Dalcroze Classes","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"August 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello Lucy Moses Summer Intensive 2013 participants, and anyone else interested teaching music to young children! As requested, here is an outline of the structure I use for my classes for young children. Though I do follow this basic plan for most of my classes, this represents only what works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":470,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/7-9-year-old-dalcroze-12616\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":4},"title":"7-9 Year-old Dalcroze: 12\/6\/16","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"December 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Back Telephone The traditional game of telephone (whisper a phrase around the circle and see if it comes back the same) only with rhythms gently tapped on the back. We tried 2 rhythms and both came back perfectly. I used the second rhythm to introduce the 4 sixteenth note rhythm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dalcroze Reference"","block_context":{"text":"Dalcroze Reference","link":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/category\/dalcroze-reference\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13545,"url":"https:\/\/joviala.com\/jovialaworks\/tonality\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":5},"title":"Tonality","author":"Michael Joviala","date":"March 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"So, yes, the relationship between two tones is not necessarily black and white (see previous post). Tonality puts those two tones into a context which could consist of the many shades of gray, unrestrained technicolor or a tasteful complimentary color pallet. 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