Bake a Cake in a Piano Lesson?

                        How does baking a cake relate to playing the piano?

When baking a cake, it is necessary and preferable that the cake rise while baking.

As a young child, my mother would tease me by requesting I not jump up and down while a cake was baking, for fear the cake not rise in the oven. A cake that sank in the middle was not as appealing as one that rose during the baking process!

An old wives tale? Who knows.

To get to the point, what does this have to do with playing the piano?

It is this: a phrase in music is much like a cake in the oven. 

As a finished musical product, each phrase should rise as it bakes.

Often, a slight crescendo through the mid- point of a phrase prevents a sinking effect (decrescendo) in the phrase, therefore allowing the phrase to bloom, to open,  to rise, and quite simply, to happen naturally.

Happy baking and remember to crescendo through your phrase.