Note Grouping

by James Morgan Thurmond (Composer)

(Meredith Music Resource). Fully explains through musical example, the concept of expressive musicianship as taught by Anton Horner, William Kincaid and Marcel Tabuteau. This book clearly illustrates how to teach students to play or sing with expression, musicianship and style and will help to make your performances "come alive".

Genres: Music

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Vanessa]

Boring. Useful information, but I can summarize it all for you in a few sentences - the notes we normally think of as being on the "strong" beat are less important than the notes leading up to them. Focus on the pickups/anacruses and the feeling of leading to the strong beat rather than emphasizing the strong beat itself. Play across beats and barlines. The end.

[Sarah M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessary read for any musician. I'll be emphasizing this concept in my teaching. A very approachable read compared to other music theorists.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book (125 pages) presents some useful advice on how to perform melodies more expressively. In a nutshell, the author argues that performers should strive to ignore the barlines when phrasing, to emphasize upbeats rather than downbeats, and to conceive of melodies as a series of “note groupings” that always contain (at a minimum) an upbeat and a downbeat. He convincingly shows how musical examples from the standard literature (with a heavy reliance on Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner) can be performed more expressively using these tools.

This was a worthwhile read, but it is unnecessarily dense, especially in the opening chapters, in which the author spends a lot of time discussing language and poetry in ancient Greece and reviewing notation and rhythm from plainchant on through the Baroque period. Keep in mind the book was written as a master’s thesis and so it reads like one – quantity of words was no doubt on the author’s mind when he was writing it, as was the desire to show comprehensive and historical knowledge.

[K.D. Putnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible insights to the parts of music that can't be named. This book succeeds in boiling expression down to a science AND recommends a lot of further reading materials. Essential for both the musician and teacher.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO BORING! There was a lot I already knew, but there was also a lot of amazing ideas in there that I had never thought of before. I think it could have been written better, but I would still recommend it to any musician. Definitely a must-read, even though it's boring, it will be good for you!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read for any musician. Clearly comes from a pianist's perspective, and his thoughts on long notes are minimal. That being said, it's a very clearly laid out way to think about the relationship between upbeat and downbeat that will change the way you approach a melodic line.