Bach : Fugue in D Minor ( Book 1 ) / Tutorial
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To-day we will talk about phrasing in piano playing. Chopin said to one of his students: "if you don't phrase well, you demonstrate that music is for you a foreign language and not your native tongue." Yet phrasing is the most neglected aspect of piano playing by amateurs ! Phrase lines are breathing lines. All music breathes - not just vocal music. Yet, because their fingers don't have lungs, amateur pianists think that they can completely ignore phrase lines with impunity. Yet, phrase lines are infinitely more important than bar lines ! We must learn to think of the music we play on the piano in terms of phrase lines. You can begin by singing each phrase aloud, without playing. You will realize that the music is made up of longer and shorter phrases. You will also notice that you have much more breath behind the first note of every phrase and the least breath behind the last note of the phrase. Now we must replicate this on the piano by playing the first note of
