Once you have developed a strong rhythmic sense (we also call that internal time), the next step is to enter into a new musical consciousness.

This new musical consciousness is based on the line as opposed to the beat, the horizontal element as opposed to the vertical.

Yes, you always have the underlying beat but it stays in the background.

To develop this new musical consciousness, first, focus on the line, on the forward motion, the horizontal element.

Don’t put any emphasis on each beat. The beats are already strong. You do not need to make them stronger.

Everything you play, every melody, focus on the line, on making the notes in the line move from one to the next, on creating a strong sense of forward motion.

And underemphasize the beats.

Next, listen to good pianists to hear how it’s done in real life.

I recommend Alicia de Larrocha, especially her early recordings on Vox/Turnabout of Albeniz and Granados.

De Larrocha is ideal because you can compare her playing of the same works (which we play on the guitar) with guitar players to hear the differences in approach.

But any pianist is good because all pianists play linearly. Even piano students, I’ve found, have a natural inclination towards linear phrasing.

(There’s a reason for this which I’ll cover in a later article.)

As I’ve mentioned, Sevilla is a good piece to compare differences in approach.

Guitarists tend to play it with a strong emphasis on each beat—chomp chomp chomp.

Because they have established such a strong beat, when they reach the high G note, they’re so afraid to take time, they invariably rush that note.

With linear phrasing, you’ll find you have a lot of time to hold on to that note. (I’ll demonstrate how this is done later).

The only guitarist who plays Sevilla with linear phrasing is Barrueco and I’ve always believed that he learned it from de Larrocha.

In fact, I read in a Guitar Player interview with Jose Tomas, that he could hear Frank Marshall’s influence in Barrueco’s playing. Frank Marshall of course was de Larrocha’s teacher.

So two things.

First, deemphasize the beat in your playing and focus on the line.

Second, listen to good pianists and absorb their phrasing.

This has to be done over a long period of time. It has to be so completely absorbed you begin to hear everything with that same fluid linear phrasing.

Posted on Sunday, February 26th, 2023 at 4:19 pm under AOV, AOVguitar, creativity. Follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.