Articulation: music symbols explained

23 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.

Slur

A curve over notes of DIFFERENT pitches: play them smoothly, without re-attacking each one. Not to be confused with a tie, which joins the same pitch.

legato

Smoothly joined, each note running into the next with no gap.

staccato

Detached. Each note shortened and separated from its neighbour.

tenuto

Held. Give the note its full length, and a little weight.

marcato

Marked. Every note given deliberate emphasis.

Leggiero

Lightly. Shallow keys, no weight through the arm, and the pedal used sparingly.

Pesante

Heavily. Weight into every note, and no hurry between them.

Legatissimo

As joined as possible: notes overlapping slightly rather than merely touching.

Staccatissimo

As detached as possible. Printed as a small wedge rather than a dot.

Portato

Between legato and staccato: each note leaned on and separated, but not clipped. Written as dots under a slur.

Martellato

Hammered. Each note struck from the arm, with a hard edge to the attack.

Sciolto

Loosely, freely, unbound. The opposite of legato without being staccato.

Secco

Dry. No pedal, no ring, the sound stopped where it is written.

Ben marcato

Well marked. Bring this line out and give every note its edge.

Non legato

Not joined. Each note released before the next, without shortening it into a staccato.

Accent

The wedge over a notehead: give this note more attack than its neighbours. Weight, not length.

Staccato dot

A dot above or below the notehead, never beside it. It shortens the note, usually to about half, and takes nothing off the beat that follows.

Staccatissimo wedge

A small vertical wedge instead of a dot: shorter and sharper still, and usually louder by implication.

Tenuto line

A short line over the notehead: hold it for its full value, and lean on it a little. The opposite instruction to a staccato dot.

Phrase mark

A long curve over several bars. It says where the musical sentence begins and ends, not that every note under it is legato.

Breath mark

A comma above the stave: take a breath, or lift the hand, and let the phrase end before the next begins.

Caesura

Two slanting strokes through the top of the stave, called railway tracks. Everything stops until the conductor or the player decides to go on.

Fingering

The small numbers above or below the notes: one is the thumb and five is the little finger. Written by an editor, and worth changing when your hand disagrees.

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