The first step to linear phrasing is to develop a strong rhythmic sense based on the subdivisions in every beat.

Why is it important to feel the subdivisions?

Because when you accelerate or retard, the subdivisions will prevent you from doing sudden accelerandos or ritardandos.

This is important to note.

When you do rubatos, you should always do it in reference to a beat. In other words, the beat should always be in the background.

As you accelerate, the pulse should increase proportionately and organically in relation to the beat.

I have written about this before but a short recap.

Think of rhythm as something that exists outside of us. We have no control over it.

What we feel as rhythm is just our response to this external rhythm which we might call universal rhythm.

Imagine you are driving on a highway.

On one side of the highway are telephone poles (slightly outdated analogy).

Imagine that as you drive past each pole, you could hear an audible click.

When you speed up, the clicks will occur faster, when you slow down, they will occur slower.

The distance between the poles hasn’t changed. What had changed is your speed. Our driving speed is our response to the universal rhythm represented by the telephone poles.

We can use the same analogy to explain how to do natural organic rubatos.

Rubatos should always occur naturally and organically, never suddenly.

A piano teacher once told me to imagine a train pulling out of or into a station.

When a train slows down or speeds up, it doesn’t do it suddenly; it does it gradually and organically.

That is the basic principle behind any rubatos.

How do you develop a strong sense of subdivisions?

You practice them by externalizing them. The best way is to tongue each subdivision and make your playing follow those subdivisions.

This is the concept of establishing an independent source of rhythm and making your playing follow that rhythmic source.

As opposed to just letting your playing produce the rhythm for you.

All this is hard to explain in words so I will be posting a series of videos to explain all these concepts.

So the first step towards linear phrasing is to develop a precise rhythmic sense based on the subdivisions.

This may take time and a lot of patience.

For many years, I was stuck with a conundrum—how do you make a melody sing and keep time at the same time?

I remember playing a concert in Palais Wittgenstein in Dusseldorf in 1981, and the critic commented that I was stronger in the modern pieces, and that my Sor Op.22 lacked swing and showed a lack of understanding of the style.

For years, I wondered about what he meant.

Yes, modern works are easier to interpret because the beat is not such a strong feature, unlike the music of Bach and Sor where the beat is strong.

At the time, I didn’t know how to loosen up my phrasing without losing the pulse.

I finally found the answer in 1992 when I started recording my Bach album.

I started recording in February of that year. I thought I was going to be done in a few days. Little did I know how wrong I was.

When I played back the recordings of those early sessions, they sounded awful and not at all what I expected. They were very stiff and yes, lacking in swing again.

I kept on recording that spring semester but they did not get any better.

That summer, I practiced everyday with my Sony walkman, and I practiced with the recordings of Alicia de Larrocha and Alfred Brendel.

Every day, I sang (or grunted) into my walkman and at the end of summer, I finally had the breakthrough I had been waiting for with Nun Komm.

I suddenly found my phrasing loosening up and free to express itself.

I was no longer a slave to the beat. Instead, the beat was always in the background, supporting but not overwhelming the melody.

I knew I had found the answer. I re practiced the pieces all over again and in November of that year, finally felt happy with the recordings to get them ready for release.

I decided to call the concept ‘linear phrasing’ and I have been teaching it to my advanced students since then.

What is linear phrasing?

It is phrasing focused on the line as opposed to the beat, which I call metrical phrasing.

Guitarists tend to play metrically and pianists linearly.

To hear the difference between the two approaches, take any guitar and piano recordings of the same piece, let’s say Sevilla, and you’ll notice the difference.

There’re several steps to mastering linear phrasing and I will cover them in the few articles.

It’s easy to get obsessed with speed.

We would chase after this fad or that fad, practice this exercise or that exercise, believing it will get us to speed heaven.

But speed is a direct outcome of good technique and fundamentals.

If you have strong fundamentals, speed will naturally result.

For instance;

If you’re light, you can move faster.

If you have less to do, you can get it done quicker.

If you have less distance to cover, you can get there faster.

Take care of your fundamentals and speed will take care of itself.

—2009

Go with the natural flow of your body.

Be true to yourself. Find out what works for you and adapt it to your needs.

Do not try to impose a foreign system in your body.

There are no one-size-fits-all approach.

We are all unique individuals, all with different physiques. (If you don’t believe this, look in the mirror. Is there another person who looks exactly like you?)

Avoid the prefabricated approach, the template-driven approach.

Instead, go for a customized approach, one that is uniquely tailored for you.

—

The way of naturalness is to listen to our body, to allow our body to go where it wants to go.

Whatever you do, just do it, and allow the body to respond.

For example—see ball come, get ball—simple.

See desired outcome, move your body to accomplish it.

Allow your natural virtuosity to emerge naturally.

By not forcing a rigid method on our body

By listening to our body and heeding its signals.

By not stifling our natural impulses with rigid rules and notions of right and wrong.

The only rule is what works, nothing else matters—methodologies, conventions, ‘expert advice.’

—2009

There’re two ways to do things—the dumb way and the smart way.

The dumb way is to use force.

The smart way figures out a way to do it with minimal effort. (Because these special ways are out of the ordinary, they are sometimes called ‘tricks.’)

The dumb way lacks sophistication which is ok for simple tasks.

If you want power, just use more force.

The smart way finds a way (special tricks) to generate that power without forcing.

Where do you learn these ‘tricks?’

From good teachers. They have a lifetime of experience which they can share with you.

From books. There’s a lot of knowledge out there waiting for you to discover them.

From experience. This is also called practice.

Practice is the most crucial because ultimately, you have to learn through your own experience.

Like riding a bike.

You can read all the books you want, or get all the advice you can from teachers, but if you don’t get on that bike, you will never learn how to ride it.

—2008

I recently started transferring some old DAT tapes in my archives to disk and was surprised to find two recordings of two movements from Bach’s first lute suite in one of the tapes.

I have no recollection of having recorded them, but from the note on the tape, they were recorded in the summer of 1992.

That was when I first started doing test recordings for my Bach CD.

But why two movements from the first lute suite?

My original intention was to include the first lute suite on my Bach CD but I decided I needed something in a major key so I eventually replaced it with BWV 998. These early recordings were done before the change of plans.

I thought the gigue sounded quite good for an early test run so here it is. The sound is the sound of Wolfe Recital Hall with no added reverb.

The most important quality of art is the quality of aliveness.

What is this aliveness?

It’s its spirit.

When a work is imprisoned within the black and white symbols on a page, that spirit is locked in.

That’s why it’s important when you bring the music to life again under your fingers, that you breathe life back into those notes.

Make them sing, make them dance, and make them come alive.

Not with mathematical precision.

Not with rules about how it should sound.

Not with preconceptions on what is good or bad.

But with your spirit, your imagination.

But imagination that is grounded in knowledge—not academic knowledge but experiential knowledge.

So if you’re a blues player, immerse yourself in the blues, breathe it, sleep it, and make it part of your soul.

So that when you play, all that knowledge and experience will find expression naturally in your playing.

If you’re a Bach player, immerse yourself in his music.

Absorb it into every fiber of your body.

So that when you play his music, all that knowledge and experience will find expression within the beautiful complexity of his music.

Above all, remember that art without the quality of aliveness is dead.

—July 2, 2009

To perform (and to live) is to exist in a state of constant flux.

This has certain repercussions:

Change—Brings newness. Do not hold on to the present moment; let it go so you can catch the next.

Unpredictability—Means continual surprises. Be prepared to improvise, all part of the general messiness of life.

Complexity—If your task has a high degree of complexity, simplify, reduce it to its basic elements.

Growth—In a dynamic world, there are only three states of being—grow, stay the same, or die. Growing seems to be the preferable option.

Volatility—Maintain your equilibrium. Continually make small adjustments to preserve your balance.

Mobility—To remain lean and agile, eliminate extra baggage. Take only what you need.

Timing—Pace and control your actions by underpinning them to a rhythmic pulse. Rhythm is the organizing principle which gives structure to time. It is the ultimate control mechanism.

—January 9, 2006