Hi everyone,
Just curious if you guys could help me understand what there is to know about phrasing tunes. I’m quite familiar with phrasing in the Classical sense, but have no idea where to begin with this music. Should I just do my best to emulate the masters in this case?
Thanks,
Mike
“The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where the art resides.”
– Artur Schnabel (Austrian pianist and composer, 1882-1951)
Brian MacNamara said something similar in a lesson I had a few years ago…I agree completely.
J.
That was a good lesson- Brian said “play the spaces”
It’s great advice, but I was thinking of something equivalent to slurring in classical music (My year of intensive piano study coming out here, sorry). Is there an approach to figuring out where to put in those spaces? Or is that where listening to the good guys comes in?
Pat Mitchell has some interesting stuff to say on the subject in his essay on Rhythm and Structure in Irish Dance Music - Sean Reid Society Journal I and II.
I think you’ve answered your own question with the above- and listening to people play live so the warts and the all bright stuff comes through as well.
That’s what a lot of accomplished composers say too.
Something I would like to know more of is phrasing airs. No matter how many I listen to, I’m not sure if I get it or not.
I guess so huh? 
But I don’t want to approach this music the same way I would western classical, Sean O’Riada said not to in his book. So, how did the greats know how to phrase the tunes?
I think that’s where knowing the language and the original words the song was set to comes in (to an extent).
It is something they grew up with. The music that they play(ed) as adults, was all around them from the time they were born to the time they passed on.
Fel, I believe, has it… listen to it, a lot. Kieran O’Hare put it nicely a couple of years back we he suggested you “… immerse yourself into the music.” Listen to it at every possible waking moment. And then get thee to an instructor or a Tionol.
3rd party observers have acknowlwdged that Mikiey has been to some tionols over the years…someone pass the Jameson’s please
When I’m working with flute or whistle students (where phrasing is a big issue due to the need to take a breath), I talk about phrasing as the process of completing a musical sentence or logical thought. For example, you wouldn’t say “Darling, I [pause for breath] love you!” You say it all in one breath. When I was a kid in the States, we all had to stand in front of the flag every morning and recite "I pledge allegiance [pause] to the flag [pause] of the United States of America. [pause] And to the republic [pause] for which it stands [pause], one nation [pause]…etc. When I joined the high school chorus, our instructor pointed out that this was an example of bad phrasing. What we should have said was “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. [pause] And to the republic for which it stands [pause]…” etc.
With the flute or the whistle, the length of your phrases is constrained by the need to take a breath. On the pipes you don’t have that constraint, and yet if you play without any phrasing at all your music is likely to be boring.
In most tunes there’s a natural phrasing that becomes apparent as you learn the tune. Listening to good players of any instrument (not just pipes) will help you absorb that “language” so you can begin to instinctively know what sounds right and what doesn’t sound right when you experiment with phrasing. There are natural places to pause and there are passages that don’t sound right when broken up. There might be musical rules for this, but the instinctive approach is better in my opinion; the more you listen, the more your gut will tell you whether your phrasing sounds right or not.