Legato
Legato means play smoothly and connected, with each note lasting until the next one begins.
On the piano it is a finger skill: you hold one key until the moment the next sounds, so there is no gap. It is what makes a melody sound sung rather than typed.
How To Spot Legato
The word legato under the staff, or a long slur curving over a group of notes.
Find It In Thirty Seconds
Play five notes and listen for a gap between any two. If you hear one, you lifted early — hold each key until the next sounds.
Open any piece of sheet music on this site and do it now. Reading is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by finding things, not by reading about them.
Related Topics...
How to Read Sheet Music: Learn how to read sheet music using interactive lessons from Chordzy. Or browse our various reading music topics.
Music Notation Glossary: Every symbol on a page of piano music, explained in one sentence each — clefs, note values, rests, accidentals, dynamics and repeat marks.
Dynamics: Dynamics are the letters under the staff telling you how loud to play: p is soft, f is loud, and mp and mf are the moderate versions of each.
Slur: A slur is a curved line over a group of notes at different pitches, meaning play them smoothly and connected as one phrase.
Staccato: A staccato dot above or below a note head means play it short and detached — roughly half its written length, with silence filling the rest.
Tie: A tie is a curved line joining two notes of the same pitch. You play the first one and hold it through the second, rather than playing it again.
More in This Section
Measure (Bar): A measure — also called a bar — is the space between two bar lines. The time signature says how many beats each measure holds.
Middle C: Middle C is the C nearest the middle of the piano, and the note that sits on its own little ledger line between the two staves of piano music.