Melody, Texture & Counterpoint

Phrase

Definition

A phrase is a musical sentence: a passage, often four bars long, that makes sense on its own and ends with a point of rest called a cadence.

A phrase is a musical sentence. Like a sentence in speech, it has a beginning, a middle and an end, makes sense on its own, and finishes with a kind of punctuation: a cadence, a point where the music pauses or comes to rest. In much classical and popular music, phrases are four bars long, though two-, three-, five- and eight-bar phrases are common too.

A treble-clef melody in G major and 3/4 under one long phrase mark: quarter notes B4, C5, D5; a half note G5 and a quarter F-sharp 5; quarter notes E5, C5, A4; and a dotted half note G4 followed by a breath mark. — An original four-bar phrase in G major under one phrase mark. It rises to its high point, the G in bar 2, falls gently, and comes to rest on the home note G, with a breath mark before the next phrase would begin.

How to find a phrase

Listen for the breath. If you sang the melody, where would you naturally breathe? That is usually the end of a phrase.
Look for the cadence. A longer note, a rest or a familiar harmonic close (V to I, or a stop on V) marks the end.
Look for the curve. Editions often show a phrase with a long curved line over it, the phrase mark. It looks like a slur but spans the whole sentence.
Look for repetition. When the opening idea comes back, a new phrase has usually started.

Phrases in pairs

Phrases often come in pairs that answer each other. The first ends with a weaker, open cadence, like a question; the second ends with a strong cadence on the home chord, like an answer. Together they make a period. Tissimo's Question and answer shows this pairing with real cadences.

Playing a phrase

Knowing where a phrase starts and ends changes how you play it. Shape each phrase toward its high point, let it relax into the cadence, and leave a little space before the next one. This shaping is called phrasing: see Phrasing. A common beginner habit is to make a break at every bar line instead; thinking in phrases fixes that.

Learn more in Phrase and period.

Common questions

How many bars is a musical phrase?

Most often four, especially in Classical music, folk songs and pop. Two-bar and eight-bar phrases are common too, and composers sometimes stretch or shorten a phrase for effect.

What is the difference between a phrase mark and a slur?

They look the same. A slur over a few notes asks for legato; a phrase mark is a long curve over a whole musical sentence that shows its shape. Many editions use the long curve for both ideas at once.