WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
What exactly does it mean to deliver a musical performance? While you are searching for a deep, comprehensive answer to this question, allow me to offer a simple working definition - DIRECTION! In other words, in a musically satisfying performance, the notes have a feeling of direction toward a goal. Look at a musical phrase and ask yourself, "Where are all these notes going?" Usually the answer is either the point of resolution or (better yet) the point of greatest musical tension.
Many young players are guilty of losing direction in two situations: longer notes and long runs. With longer notes, they simply count out the note while waiting for the interesting material that follows. They allow themselves a mental "pit stop" during long notes (perhaps this explains all those counting mistakes!). With runs, they focus primarily on getting the correct notes out without concern creating a compelling sense of direction towards a goal.
NOTE GROUPING
One good way to create direction is to place notes into groups. Almost all notes can be placed into one of three categories: (1) going there (building), (2) there, and (3) going away (tapering off). Often composers create musical direction making one arrival point the beginning of a new buildup. Thus a single note can simultaneously fall into two categories. This is especially true of Baroque music.
Try singing a phrase with numbers. Use the number "1" for any arrival note and the numbers "2" or "3" for notes that lead into that arrival note. Singing music in this way, you should begin to perceive musical groups not as 1-2 1-2, but 2-1, 2-1.
A similar technique is to decide on a focal point for each phrase. Circle the note you are aiming at and lightly draw an arrow over the notes leading up to this focal point. Since not all notes are involved in building to a climax, you might try a different sort of arrow for notes that taper off after a climax.
Of course, one major reason for grouping notes is determining which notes to emphasize. Remember that emphasis is relative. If you are to successfully bring out certain notes, you must also place less emphasis on others. While for the sake of accuracy and consistency we strive to hit every note cleanly, for the sake of phrasing we must allow some notes to have lesser importance.
Try playing a passage without changing notes. Pick a single note and then play the music with as much direction as possible. This practice technique forces you to focus on such phrasing elements as vibrato, dynamics and accentuation.
AS YOU WOULD SPEAK...
We've been speaking all our lives and do so quite naturally. The natural flow and inflection of spoken sentences can be a powerful tool for better musical phrasing.
Try "saying" your music. I don't mean singing it. Certainly it is good to sing it if you can but that's not what I'm talking about. Using some simple syllable, rhythmically chant out a musical passage with your voice. You might even try moving your slide and pretending to play as you do this. As you "say" the music, allow your speech to have the same natural inflection it would have if you were talking to someone. Once you've done this a few times, play the passage again while keeping your mind focused on the natural, "speech-like" flow of the music.
If you are feeling creative, you might try creating lyrics to fit the phrasing you want. Remember that the lyrics are a means to an end. Even if your words make little sense, create sentences whose natural emphasis lines up with the emphasis you want to bring out in the music.
Perhaps you don't want to go through the process of creating lyrics for your etudes and solos. I have been able to get a lot of mileage out of a single, silly word: banana. The syllables of this word fall into the phrasing three categories of building, arriving and tapering away. If you allow yourself to bend the word a bit (for example, saying ba-ba-NA-na), it surprising how far you can go with simple "banana phrasing."
COMING UP FOR AIR
For wind players, the breath is not only a necessity but a means of delineating phrases. Once you decide upon note groups, breathe in spots that make musical sense. Don't just keep playing until you can go no further! Just as Christmas shoppers are advised to shop early before the rush, breathe early before you are desperate. If you aren't already doing so, mark every breath into your music. If you change your breathing strategy, be sure to change your breath marks.
If you have carefully considered note groupings, you won't want to breathe in between a pickup and a downbeat. That would be like fracturing this sentence.
This is why so many conductors tell their the students not to breathe on the bar line. The best place to breathe is right before the beginning of a group of pickup notes or right after an arrival note.
Have you ever noticed how the least musical note is the one right before the breath? Do not allow the last note before a breath to reflect the coming breath. Make sure you taper or build the note just as you would if you were not going to take a breath right after it. It may help to think of "surprising" yourself with the breath.