Music Lesson: Inflections and Phrasing

So now let's add that phrase and carry on to the next phrase, going right up into the middle section where we'll talk about some other inflections and phrasing.

Count Along
1, 2, 3.

Understanding the Phrase

In the third line down, the phrase that I played there, you'll notice that on the third beat,

• The push into the third beat
• The quaver on the second hand

You'll notice there's a little line underneath that. Mark Nightingale's written that it could mean:

• A bend
• A little slide up to it.

Again, this is kind of your artistic license as to how you want this piece to sound.

Example Bends and Slides
I did a bend like this:

• We could do a little kind of grace note slide into it there.

I use my valves playing a tone lower:

• For the G sharp, I went F sharp, G.
• For the next note, I did E to the F sharp.

Practice Tips
You can practice that:
1, 2, 3, 4.

And speed up the way that we use the valves. So you've got two different flavors:

• You can add the valves, like we just did then,
• Or the bending of the note.

Listening to Techniques

Let's hear the bend one more time.

In another lesson, we talked about how we bend notes. We can bend notes by using our air stream. The way the tongue affects the air stream:

• If we raise the tongue in our mouth, generally the air coming over it will be faster.
• Since the tongue is higher in the mouth, it compresses the air.

Example of Compression
You see, if you can make a noise like that. If I do that whilst I'm blowing the trumpet, this is what happens.

As you can see, my range goes way up in the sky because I'm compressing the air faster. Air means a higher note.