Sometimes my teacher remarks to me that I should shape a phrase rather than just play the notes under a slur "mechanically".
I think I'm improving there somewhat, but I don't really know what I'm doing differently, or what the teacher is doing differently when playing "as a phrase".
My obsessively analytical sense of curiosity is flaring up.
On the "micro" level, what distinguishes a set of notes merely played legato exactly as written, in tempo, from the same notes played "as a phrase"?
I imagine it must be some minute variations in length and/or volume that shape up into a progression, because after all what else is there to change?
But if so, which one is primarily involved in making a phrase - note length or volume, or is it both?
And can the actual modifications from correct-but-mechanical playing of notes be described in detail, numerically?
Perhaps this has even been studied academically.
What makes a phrase a phrase?
