Lesson 16: Staccato, Legato, Slurs
Category: Lessons, Music Theory
Well, it has been a while… but so far we’ve talked about the duration of notes (quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, etc) and the value of notes (A,B,C,D…). Well now – you must be itching to learn something new. So here it is – drumroll please….. Introducing staccato notes!
Staccato notes
The staccato note is indicated by a dot above or below the note as seen in the picture to the left. Staccato can mean “abrupt” or “disconnected”. So how do you play a note in a disconnected manner? To play a staccato note, the finger basically hits the key and lifts up again so that the note sounds short. The DURATION of the note will remain the same. (That is, a quarter note will still be one count, a half note will still be two counts, etc). However, after the finger lifts off the key, there will be silence for the rest of the duration of the note.
Legato
Legato is the opposite of staccato. When a piece of music indicates that is should be played legato, it must 
be played as smoothly as possible. In musical notation, legato is indicated by a SLUR, or a curved line above or below a group of notes. These notes should be played without a break between the notes, as smoothly connected as possible.
Now you know the two most common ways of playing notes: staccato and legato. Now there is also a SHORTER version of the staccato note. It is called STACCATISSIMO, and is indicated with little triangular spikes above or below the note. But we’ll talk about that some other time.
Posted on January 21st, 2009 by sharlene
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