Legato VS Staccato ***Nocturne in E Flat Minor***

Dr. John Meffen further discusses techniques about pianistic touch. He explains the possibilities of what you can do with those touches: being able to play legato and staccato.

For those who don't know, legato and staccato are musical terms to describe the way you play. Legato is playing smoothly, usually with long, extended sounds. Staccato is the exact opposite, playing sharply and creating a short, striking sound.

Meffen says legato is played by transferring weight across your fingers while you play the notes (65). In other words, when you play a note, you don't release it until you have played the next note and you don't release that note until you have played the next. By doing this, you basically transfer your weight from one finger to the next. This creates a smooth, connecting sound with no gaps or breaks of silence in between. Here is a video of me playing legato, being sure to use Meffen's tips by connecting the notes to make the song flow.

Staccato is played by striking a note very quickly and releasing your finger right after. This creates a quick, sharp sound of the note, kind of like a "pop". A common mistake that happens when playing staccato is that a student can get too concerned with releasing their finger right away that they don't strike the note with enough power for it the sound to be heard. This is an issue because missing a note is never good in a song. Meffen provides the counter part of this issue. He says " Students often, in their eagerness to release a note early, actually hit it more strongly" (69). This means that students, in fear of not hitting the note hard enough, will strike the note harder. The result of sudden loudness during staccato will not be pleasant either because it won't match the volume of the song. Here in my video of me playing scales in staccato, I am sure to avoid these mistakes by making sure to strike each staccato hard enough for it to be heard but not too hard for it to stand out negatively.

QOTD: In your opinion, which one (legato or staccato) do you like more and why?

Citation: Meffen, John, Dr. Improve Your Piano Playing. New York: Allworth Press, 2007. Print.