"In music theory, a phrase is a unit of musical meter that has a complete musical sense of its own, built from figures, motifs, and cells, and combining to form melodies, periods and larger sections."
The way in which sound is organized into discrete units or phrases, essential for creating rhythm and melody in singing or speech.
Rhythm: Understanding how to create a repetitive yet varying pattern of sounds to establish a musical pattern.
Pitch: Understanding how the rise and fall of your voice can change the overall meaning of what you are saying.
Dynamics: Understanding how to control the loudness or quietness of your voice as you speak.
Emphasis: Understanding how to stress or highlight certain words or phrases to convey meaning more effectively.
Timbre: Understanding how the tone quality of your voice can change or enhance the overall emotional effect of your performance.
Tempo: Understanding how the speed of your delivery can add to, or detract from, the overall impact of what you are saying or singing.
Breath control: Understanding how to use your breath to support your voice and maintain control over your delivery, particularly during longer phrases.
Articulation: Knowing how to properly enunciate words and form consonant sounds to make your delivery more clear and easily understood.
Pause: Knowing how to strategically use silent pauses to break up your delivery and add emphasis and impact to your message.
Inflection: Understanding how to alter your pitch and tone during specific moments in your delivery to enhance the meaning and emotional impact of your message.
Legato: A smooth and connected style of phrasing, where each note is played with a seamless transition to the next.
Staccato: A short and detached style of phrasing, characterized by crisp and precise notes.
Marcato: A sharp and accentuated style of phrasing, where each note is played with a pronounced emphasis.
Tenuto: A sustained style of phrasing, where each note is held for its full value.
Portamento: A sliding style of phrasing, where one note glides into the next with a gradual change in pitch.
Glissando: A rapid sliding style of phrasing, where one note slides quickly into the next without stops.
Mordent: A small ornamentation played as a quick alternation between the main note and the note above or below it.
Trill: A rapid alternation between the main note and the note above it.
Tremolo: A rapid repetition of a single note or a rapid alternation between two notes.
Turn: A small ornamentation played as a quick alternation between the main note, the note above it, and the main note again.
Crescendo: A gradual increase in volume over a period of time.
Decrescendo: A gradual decrease in volume over a period of time.
Sforzando: A sudden accentuation of a note or chord.
Accent: A slight emphasis placed on a note or chord.
Slur: A curved line connecting two or more notes, indicating that they should be played smoothly without articulation.
Phrase: A musical sentence or a group of notes that make musical sense together as a unit.
Articulation: The specific way in which each note is played, such as legato, staccato or marcato.
Dynamics: The variations of volume or intensity in music, ranging from soft to loud or vice versa.
Rubato: A slight freedom of tempo where the performer can speed up or slow down the tempo within a musical phrase to add expression.
Ornamentation: A decorative technique used to embellish a melody, such as trills, turns, and mordents, etc.
"Phrases are created in music through an interaction of melody, harmony, and rhythm."
"A phrase is a substantial musical thought, which ends with a musical punctuation called a cadence."
"Terms such as sentence and verse have been adopted into the vocabulary of music from linguistic syntax."
"Though the analogy between the musical and the linguistic phrase is often made, still the term 'is one of the most ambiguous in music... there is no consistency in applying these terms nor can there be... only with melodies of a very simple type, especially those of some dances, can the terms be used with some consistency.'"
"John D. White defines a phrase as 'the smallest musical unit that conveys a more or less complete musical thought... Phrases vary in length and are terminated at a point of full or partial repose, which is called a cadence.'"
"Edward Cone analyses the 'typical musical phrase' as consisting of an 'initial downbeat, a period of motion, and a point of arrival marked by a cadential downbeat.'"
"Charles Burkhart defines a phrase as 'Any group of measures (including a group of one, or possibly even a fraction of one) that has some degree of structural completeness.'"
"What counts is the sense of completeness we hear in the pitches not the notation on the page."
"A phrase is not pitches only but also has a rhythmic dimension."
"Each phrase in a work contributes to that work's large rhythmic organization."
"Phrases are terminated at a point of full or partial repose, which is called a cadence."
"Phrases are not created by slur or by legato performance."
"Phrases are created in music through an interaction of melody, harmony, and rhythm."
"A phrase is a unit of musical meter that has a complete musical sense of its own, built from figures, motifs, and cells."
"A phrase is a unit of musical meter that has a complete musical sense of its own, built from figures, motifs, and cells, and combining to form melodies, periods and larger sections."
"Phrases vary in length and are terminated at a point of full or partial repose."
"Only with melodies of a very simple type, especially those of some dances, can the terms be used with some consistency."
"A phrase is a substantial musical thought, which ends with a musical punctuation called a cadence."
"What counts is the sense of completeness we hear in the pitches not the notation on the page."