3 Tips to Play More Musically

Are you playing musically?

Many of us think that if we can read music off a page and play the notes, we're playing musically. Or likewise, if you're just hammering away or noodling away at some lines or charts that we're playing musically.

I mean, you're playing all the notes after all, right? So how is it that you're not playing musically?

Let's talk about it.

Playing all the right notes is a step towards playing musically, but it's just one part of the whole puzzle.

If you truly want to play musically, there's a whole lot of other things involved.

Aside from playing all the right notes, one of the best things you can do in order to play musically, is to play with dynamics. There's a reason why composers and songwriters always play around with dynamics in their music.

Let's think about this scenario. Have you ever been in a meeting or even in school and you have someone talking to you in a very monotone voice? Let's be honest, it's very difficult to listen to a monotone voice without spacing out--especially if their speech is quite lengthy.

Meanwhile, if you have a speaker who is more energetic, and has more dynamic range in their voice, it's likely you're at least going to pay attention to them longer than the monotone speaker.

Dynamics allow us as musicians and composers to help shape our volume. We can play at a really loud level for a while, and then slowly make our sound get quieter. We can go from a really quiet sound to a really loud sound in an instance. There are so many different types of dynamics that we can play in order to make our sound sound interesting. Dynamics help play a part towards making our music come to life.

Playing with dynamics is probably going to be the biggest thing you can do in order to play musically, but there's more-!

So we've covered playing the right notes, and playing with dynamics. What else is there?

For those of you who do read music, you may have noticed some weird little symbols that pop up over or under your music notes. Some of them may look like this: > (also known as accents), for example. It's also very likely that these symbols could also look like dots (staccato) or lines (tenuto). You may also see long arched lines that connect notes and phrases, which are known as legato slurs.

All of these symbols are called articulations. There are many different types of articulations out there that I won't get into here, but those are just a few examples for now.

Even for those of you who don't read music, you may know what articulations are since articulations have their own technical aspects to them on various instruments.

Bottom line is that your articulations are actually very important when it comes to playing musically. Articulations tell us how long or short to play a note. They tell us what technique we need to use in order to produce the right feeling. Articulations help shape individual notes and phrases that actually make a big difference in our sound.

Now, I'm going to preface this by saying that I'm not a brass player at all, so if I have any brass players who want to chime in, feel free.

With that being said, let's use the brass in order to give us a better idea of what an articulation can do.

Often brass players use different syllables to help them produce the correct articulation. In order for them to articulate notes, they use a technique called tonguing. Tonguing allows them to manipulate their

airflow in order to create rhythms and produce articulations.

For long notes, they might use the syllable "dah." It's a syllable that naturally feels long to us. This might help them to produce longer tones, and their attack might be gentler than a staccato attack for instance. Meanwhile, if they encounter a passage of fast moving sixteenth notes, they might use the syllables "ta ka ta ka" in order to produce that sound.

You can even try saying these syllables to yourself to get a feel for the difference between the two. Pay special attention to the difference between the attack of your tongue while saying "duh" versus saying "ta ka ta ka." One of them will feel a lot shorter than the other.

For a more visual representation, a string section can pluck the strings on their instrument. This is known as a pizzicato articulation. Meanwhile, when string players draw their bows across their strings, this is known as an arco technique, and it may be likely that their musical notes are connected with musical slurs, in order to make the notes sound long.

Hopefully that helps give you a better sense of how articulations can change the music that's in front of us, and helps shape it.

Articulations and dynamics are small details, but if executed correctly, they can truly bring so much life to the music, the way the composer intended. Further, if executed correctly, they also help give you an edge when auditioning for bands as well. They make your sound so much more interesting and a lot of bands categorize this as musicality, which is huge in their judging components.

So start playing more musically and see the difference for yourself.

For our question of the day...

Which ways do you think you can improve your musicality?