What is Musicianship?
"The best and most beautiful
things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt by the heart."
– Helen Keller
We have all been told at one time or another to "play more
musically." I want for myself and all my students to strive
not merely
to be good trombonists, but to be good
musicians who play trombone.
What does that mean? What is the difference between a trombonist and a
musician who plays trombone? The trombone is a musical instrument; the
act of playing it makes you a musician, right? Not necessarily.
When being asked to play more musically, we often hear things such as, "play more expressively," "sing," "communicate," "feel the music," "say something" and other similar phrases which all apply, but don't necessarily help us understand or achieve the goal of playing "more musically". The reason for this is that music is like a language itself, which we are trying to describe using English. It is like describing the French language using English.
The idea of language can also be used to compare the idea of musical vs. unmusical by imagining someone speaking to you in English, who is perhaps even pronouncing all the words correctly, but obviously does not understand anything that he or she is saying. Think of a robot SPEAKING IN A VERY MONOTONOUS WAY WITH NO RISE AND FALL TO ITS VOICE AND NO SENSE OF FEELING OR EMOTION BEHIND ITS WORDS. A good speaker will enunciate clearly, change the tone or volume of his voice, stress certain words, pause to varying degrees to punctuate the phrase or do many other things that come to most of us quite naturally. Now, think of notes as being letters or words and phrases as being sentences. Playing an instrument musically is going beyond playing all the correct notes in all the correct places, to playing with understanding of what the notes and phrases actually mean.
Phrasing and expression can be basically stated as "Tension and Release" and the anticipation of "Tension and Release". Now I am not talking about tension in terms of physical tension, but rather emotional tension. Imagine it is the night before your birthday and there is a huge package wrapped up on the breakfast table with your name on it. You are quite sure you know what it is, and have been thinking about it for weeks. It seems like forever, but the next morning eventually arrives and your family finally gathers at the table, where you have been waiting excitedly ever since you woke up. First though, your mom makes you open up all these other, smaller gifts which are fun and cool, but not The Big One. But the moment finally arrives and you tear the paper off the box and there it is, that one thing that you wanted most for your birthday this year!!!
That is the kind of anticipation and tension that music conveys. We can have all the smaller climaxes in a piece of music, perhaps representing all the smaller gifts you open, but there is usually one or maybe two main climaxes which mark the main excitement in the piece. There is the buildup and anticipation of that climax (tension) and then the letdown of emotion (release) afterwards. Sometimes there is a buildup of anticipation and excitement and then a sudden and unexpected change or drop in emotion, perhaps because the Big Present you unwrapped turned out to be something else entirely from what you expected and wanted, and you were disappointed the moment you realized what was actually in the package.
Our clues for determining the location of tension and release are all the expressive markings a composer adds to the notes and rhythms. These include dynamics, articulations, tempo indications and/or changes, an indication of Maestoso or Largo and more. A steady rise or fall in the notes themselves is often a clue. An isolated accidental or a change in key can be a great indicator. You will sometimes find that a composer has repeated the same pattern of notes a couple of times, perhaps changing the key each time; this affects our anticipation.
Frequently, tension and release is found by understanding the relative importance of the beats in a measure. The most important beat of any measure is the first one, and the music should always lead to an emphasis of the downbeat. In 4/4 time, the third beat is next in line, followed by the fourth beat (which leads to the following downbeat), and finally the second beat, which is releasing the tension of the downbeat.
Often the title of the piece can give you a clue. Obviously, a piece called "Funeral March" will have a much different feel than one called "Procession of the King" or "Love Song". Make a habit of looking beyond the notes and rhythms to see what else the composer has told you about the piece.
A piece of music should be like the tide, with
one wave
hitting the
shore and then falling back. Even when it is calm, you can sit on the
beach and hear each wave as it reaches the shore and then falls back
into the ocean. Sometimes there are sets of stronger waves that are
mixed in as well. It is almost as though the ocean is breathing, just
like music.
Practice with basic melodies, determining where the major climax is and where the sub-climaxes are. The voice is the purest musical instrument there is, and great singers are among the best musicians and best teachers of musicianship. Listen to great singers and how they express the music with their voices. Sing simple melodies on your own and then play them on your instrument, always imagining that you are actually singing, though with the tone of a trombone.
For more advanced study of phrasing and musicianship, play the vocalises in Johannes Rochut's Melodious Etudes, Vol. I. This, along with Arban's Complete Method, is one of the staples of every low brass player's library. If you are not yet ready for Rochut on a technical level, you can start with Concone studies.
Music is subjective, meaning that it can mean different things to different people. Once you have made all your musical decisions about a piece and are performing it, don't ask questions; make statements. Have a musical opinion and believe in it, expressing it without hesitation, doubt or tentativeness. Sometimes music might actually be timid in nature, but you need to understand that is the case and perform it that way on purpose. Remember that your personal opinion is worthy and valid; if you perform with confidence and conviction, you will convince the audience.