## 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.

Staccato is about separation, not about hitting the key harder. The note still has whatever dynamic is marked; it simply stops early.


## How To Spot Staccato

A dot directly above or below the note head. A dot to the *right* of the head is a dotted note, which means the opposite.


## Find It In Thirty Seconds

Play a line of quarter notes legato, then staccato, with the same volume. The only thing that should change is how long each note lasts.

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.