A Word Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words!

If you’re looking for an effective and memorable way to communicate various approaches to musical expression, give word pictures a try. A word picture is simply a descriptive phrase that conveys, via analogy, how to execute a musical gesture. The best word pictures use concise and evocative imagery to suggest what the music should sound like.

Word Picture Examples

Here are some word pictures I use when rehearsing Robert W. Smith’s composition, The Tempest (Belwin, Grade 1).

EX. 1. In MM7-8, the percussion has an exciting crescendo. To make this moment more dramatic, I prefer players stay soft for most of the crescendo, waiting to bring up the crescendo quickly during the final 2 beats.

Here, I compare their volume curve to the path of an airplane taking off. A plane typically speeds down the runway for a long time, then cuts into the sky in an exponential (not linear) fashion. I say, “Make your crescendo like the path of an airplane taking off from a runway...pull up late!”

EX. 2. The repeated 8th notes in the clarinets at M17 start big - fortissimo, with an accent - but need to trail off quickly, by the end of the measure.

I tell the clarinets, “Play that measure like the sound of dropping a stone in the Grand Canyon. You hear the initial hit, then echos” (i.e. DIT - dit - dit - dit - dit - dit - etc.).

EX. 3. In MM18-19, staccato 8th notes alternate with accented quarter notes.

The staccato 8th notes may be described as using a fine point marker to make dots on a page with light, stabbing motions (i.e. “dit-dit”). The accents, however, are more like slapping a brush, wet with paint, hard against a canvas (i.e. “thwack!”).

EX. 4. I find word pictures motivate younger players especially well. A while back, when rehearsing Midnight Mission (FJH, Grade .5) by Brian Balmages with 1st year band students, I described the light staccato in measures 3-4 as “tip toeing like spies, sneaking around a secret warehouse at night with a flashlight.”

They bought into the style immediately! When they occasionally lapsed into playing longer, heavier notes, all I had to do was remind them to “tip toe.”

More Examples

Playing legato passages - the kind one finds all throughout beautiful tone pieces such as O Waly, Waly (arr. Douglas Wagner, Belwin, Grade 1), Magic Valley (Scott Watson, Alfred, Grade 3), or Irish Tune from County Derry (Percy Grainger, Carl Fischer, Grade 4), may be described as painting long, smooth strokes back-and-forth with a wide brush, saturated with paint.

Many compositions involve the melody moving from one instrument (or section) to another. Members of the ensemble “shine the spotlight” on what’s important by bringing out the lead line while playing accompanying parts more softly.

A perfect example of the above occurs in measures 17-32 (the “B Section”) of Frank Erickson’s Air for Band (Belwin, Grade 3). The melody passes from the Clarinets, then to Flute/Oboe/Clarinet 1, then to Trumpet 1, then to Clarinet 1/2, then finally back to Flute/Oboe/Clarinet 1. It’s easy for that lead line to get lost unless players “shine the spotlight” on the appropriate section(s).

To describe the way lead line players need to match things such as tone quality, dynamics and articulation with one another, I also compare the sensation of passing melodic fragments to passing the baton between runners in a relay race.

Student Agency - Ask Students

After modeling word pictures for your ensemble, you should be able to get them to do the same. Recently, after discussing the concept of staccato as “detached,” I asked students to describe the sound in as few words as possible . They offered excellent word pictures such as: pointed, sticky, dry, like dots, and more.

There’s so much right about allowing students to devise their own word pictures for various musical expressions:

1. The act of including students (asking them) shows you value their voice.
2. Each student who suggests a word picture is thinking critically and learning.
3. Using student-generated word pictures adds motivation to remember and execute the musical gesture.

An Actual Picture Works Well, Too!

Of course, there are times when an actual picture really helps explain musical execution. Here’s the opening rhythmic gesture of Carol Brittin Chamber’s march, All for One, One for All (Excelsia, Grade 1):

Since this motif recurs dozens of times throughout the march, you want to be sure students learn it right. When working this march with an honor band recently, I reminded students that the staccato dictates they play the first two notes in a detached manner. But it wasn’t until I notated the rhythm this way (on a whiteboard in front of the ensemble) that they started playing it in a convincingly detached manner:

Conclusion

What I like about word pictures is three-fold: 1) they’re effective, 2) they’re time-saving, and 3) they’re easy to remember later on. Do you have a favorite word picture you use when rehearsing your bands? I’d love to hear about it! Please share your favorite musical word pictures with me at drscottwatson@gmail.com .

Dr. Scott Watson