Understanding Phrasing in Music 

Have you ever played a solo with all the right notes that sounded cool in the moment. But when you listen back on it, it didn’t sound great. A big reason for that is phrasing. In English, phrases are groupings of incomplete sentences. In music, phrases are complete musical ideas.  

Phrases combine the main 4 pillars of music: Dynamics, Rhythm, Pitch and Tone. In order to master phrasing, you must master each part. There are many ways to do this. Check out the links to Dynamics, and Rhythm to learn more about those.

Even when you master rhythm, you still have to practice playing rhythms and note choice. You can learn about subjects and verbs, but that doesn't mean you can make a sentence. But, you still need them to make phrases.

So, how does phrasing in music work? There are 3 things to cover. 

1. Phrase Lengths 

2. Theme and Variation 

3. Solo Structure 

Phrase Lengths

Here is an excerpt from the Roxy Rockin’ Guitar books that talk about how to use Phrase Lengths: 

“Phrasing is like a musical sentence. The rhythms are the size of the word. The notes are the word. The rests are commas and periods. Dynamics are the exclamation points. 

1st graders learn short sentences. I like spot. We are fun. Musicians learn simple phrases like “Mary had a Little Lamb.” Simple phrases are great to use! But, only using simple phrases sounds boring. 

If a phrase is like a sentence, we want to create phrase paragraphs. A good phrase paragraph will have busy phrases and simple phrases. A busy phrase has lots of notes. a simple phrase has a couple notes. Putting them together creates interesting phrase paragraphs. 

Don’t create run-on phrases! a run-on phrase is when you play endless notes without getting to a point. 

Phrase Paragraphs are not a common term in the music world. Most people refer to a phrase paragraph as a phrase, which can get confusing. If you hear someone say, play 4-bar phrases. Think phrase paragraph.  

Combining simple and busy phrases together makes interesting phrase paragraphs. If you can do it over 4 or 8 measures, your golden.” 

Let’s break down this concept. First, the easiest way to know when the phrase ends is when the player pauses or rests. This can be for a measure or 1 beat, but a definitive pause is the end of the phrase. 

This means that you need to add pauses into your playing. If you never stop playing, you get run-on phrases. These are like run-on sentences, sentences that should end, but they never do, the player doesn’t have the discipline to stop. Reread that sentence. Did it feel like it never ended? Beginner guitar players do the same thing. They play endless notes that don't sound like anything.

Beginner musicians will learn songs like Mary Had a Little Lamb. This melody is simple. The rhythm stays the same the entire time. There are only 5 notes and most of the time it moves like a scale. As you get more advanced, you learn more complicated melodies.

Variation in rhythm and pitch creates interesting phrases. This doesn’t mean you can’t repeat phrases. In fact, it's great practice to repeat phrases. But, you should play rhythms that vary within the phrase. For example, the rhythm 1 2 + + 4 sounds way cooler than 1 + 2 + 3. There are ways to make the second rhythm sound awesome using dynamics. But if you play both rhythms without any dynamic changes, the first one is cooler.

At the end of that excerpt, it talks about phrase paragraphs. This is about playing phrases with a variety of phrase lengths. Phrase paragraphs are like English paragraphs. A good paragraph will have short sentences and long sentences. Short sentences emphasize a point. Long sentences give the user a lot to take in and change the reading cadence up. Combining short and long phrases gives listeners the same feeling. This will help them stay engaged. 

Here’s how to practice this. Play a solo. Practice short phrases of 3-5 notes. Then mix it up with long phrases of 7-9 notes. Then end the phrase with a cool 12-note phrase. This is where the English analogy breaks, because ending with a flurry of notes is awesome! 

Theme and Variation 

Theme and Variation is a classical style of music. The composer plays a melody. He then repeats the melody with slight variations. This keeps the listener engaged with a familiar melody while introducing new ideas.

This concept is fantastic for solos. If you play something beautiful, play it again. The 2nd time, change the last note that you play. The 3rd time, you could change the rhythm. The 4th time, play completely different notes with the same rhythmic structure. You can add notes. Get rid of notes. The possibilities are endless.  

Here’s what to practice. Write a simple melody. Play a solo and use the melody for every part of the solo. Change it to create variation. This does not mean when you solo that you can only use one melody, but the exercise is fantastic for learning. 

Solo Structure 

Boring solos sound the same the entire time. If a player plays 16th notes at 180 bpm for 3 minutes, the first 20 seconds sound cool. Then it gets boring. If a player plays 10 notes in a minute, this is boring because nothing happens. How do we practice this? 

Intermediate guitar players usually play one rhythm for their entire solo. They may add a big bend every now and then. But, they don’t have the technical capabilities to play faster and don’t want to play slower. 

The secret is to play less. You can start a solo with 2 notes, then wait 4 measures. This creates anticipation. It also helps players with less technical ability play more interesting solos. Take a 12-bar blues and solo. In the first 12 bars, you can only play 5 notes. You will find that it is very easy to play all 5 notes in the first measure. But, this exercise forces you to slow down your playing.

Note: this solo strategy works well for long solos, 32 bars or more. If you play an 8-bar solo, you can play more notes right at the beginning. 

You can also use theme and variation in this concept. Play a 2-note phrase. Then play it again and add a note at the end.  You can use theme and variation when you play a couple notes or a lot of notes.

Mastering patience with solos is difficult for guitar players. But when you do, you create anticipation with an audience. They can hear what you've given them and want more. This is where you can unleash fast phrases, 16th-note runs, sweep picking and more. You are ready to add notes and mesmerize. But, it is still important to use phrasing techniques mentioned above even if you play a lot of notes. If you wanna learn more about crazy guitar techniques, click here.

Solo structure in 1 sentence. Start slow, build anticipation, make them lean in, then mesmerize them.

This helps structure an entire solo. The phrases are the notes, rhythms, dynamics and tone you use. The phrase paragraphs are how you group phrases together. The solo structure is how you take the phrase paragraphs and put them together.

The phrase excerpt came from our Red Level of the Roxy Rockin' Guitar Course. If you are unsure what you need to work on next, fill out this form and get your free ebook today.