Piano Staccato & Legato Techniques

Part of the Video Series How to Play the Piano

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Piano staccato and legato techniques are essential for playing the piano. Learn staccato and legato techniques for playing the piano in this free online video music lesson.

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Piano Staccato & Legato Techniques
Hi my name is Omri and today we are going to talk about some musical styles when we are playing. Now the musical language is very precise when you read the notes they don’t just tell you how long to hold the notes and what volume to play them and of course which note, they also tell you how, the composer will tell you how they want the notes played in relation to each other. For example, when I go and play the C Major scale it seems like I’m just playing the notes, but really you can describe more properties of the way that I played it. For example, each note was connected to the last just slightly and had a slight overlap but it was noticeable that I didn’t pick up my fingers between each note. That has a different sound quality and in musical terms we have words to describe the different relationships between the notes. When we see notes played regularly without any markings we are supposed to play them and lift our fingers. Each note is supposed to be played and the sound is supposed to finish before we go to the next one even if it is a slight pause. If we want to connect the notes together or slur them we play it legato; it is another Italian term which means to play slurred or connected. If we want to play really short we call it Staccato; and that’s….especially short. Shorter than when we were playing the notes regular. I’ll play that one more time. So when we are playing we can play either regular where the notes are disconnected but they play their full length or we can play Legato where the notes are slurred together or we can play staccato where the notes are especially short and end before their specified time.

About the Expert

Expert: Omri Goldshtrom has been playing the piano for over 10 years. He currently teaches lessons to students of all ages. Read More