Could you tell me in what way or what specifically this teacher did to destroy your sense of phrasing... I don't doubt that it happened... but it would help if I could understand where the damage was done. Often times an incompetent teacher can leave the student so unsure of their own musical instincts that they simply convince themselves that they have none at all.
I have had a lot of experience "undoing" that kind of damage... the good news is that your sense of phrasing hasn't been lost... just temporarily forgotten...
singing is GREAT for that and will help you remember --but often times there is a lot of miscommunication between bad teachers and their students... terms are not defined properly and very important concepts are either left out completely or are not presented in a way that the student understands... the student believes that they are doing things the way they were taught... or "the right way" but in fact they are not.
So please share more about why you feel this way.
maybe I can help.
1. The teacher makes me play along with everything that she can play (poorly, though.)
2. One of the pieces that REALLY damaged me was the Ballade #4 by Chopin. She made me play with her for a BUNCH of times, and it destroyed me. In an earlier post, I mentioned a flowing section and a chorale section that she totally destroyed in me.
3. I tried to counter this by playing, with the (noise-cancelling) headphones on, with Zimerman. This temporarily worked for a few minutes after I played with it, but after some time, I would forget the sense of music once more.
4. The teacher kept on repeating "You're not allowed to do that in Chopin! When he doesn't write ritard, DONT DO RITARD!" And stuff like that
5. Another thing to note was that the lessons were on Friday nights. Scentific studies show that if you learn before you go to sleep, you will be repeating what you learned during your sleep.
I recently went to a camp where a great teacher was talking to me about instincts (in music), and said that a great master told her that instincts were taught. This gave me some hope. Maybe a could relearn my instincts! I'm still in that process.
As for the singing, I don't know why, but before, phrasing came naturally, even though I never had to sing the melodies. And also sometimes, there are pieces without true "melodies", so what would I do then?
Thanks for the advice, though,
Emily