Okay, so a quick question concerning tied staccato notes on a piano. There's a passage where I have two quarter notes that are tied, but both are staccato. I understand what to do if the second note is staccatoed, but I've never seen both staccatoed. Am I supposed to lightly separate the two? I don't take lessons or anything, so please excuse me if this is a pretty elementary question. =D

I've never seen such a thing O_O

Okay, so a quick question concerning tied staccato notes on a piano. There's a passage where I have two quarter notes that are tied, but both are staccato. I understand what to do if the second note is staccatoed, but I've never seen both staccatoed. Am I supposed to lightly separate the two? I don't take lessons or anything, so please excuse me if this is a pretty elementary question. =D

I believe so... if not, I don't know what else it could be. How my former band director described that articulation to me was "short, but smooth."

hello. regarding the question, just play the first staccato quarter note as is, and keep it for two counts. the staccato mark on the tied quarter note is in reference to the first staccato quarter note. it actually has the effect as a quarter note-quarter rest progression. if your playing the piano, the second staccato note tells the pianist to hold his finger on the key he/she just played. since it is a staccato, just rest your finger over the played key for the whole two counts. not many composers use that notation because it is confusing, though. hope this helps.

'portato' is the correct term for this articulation.

the difference between portato and legato is in the attack. its difficult to explain over the internet really, but with legato playing on a piano you just transfer the weight from finger to finger. with portato you combine this with attacking each note as if it were staccato.

does that make any sense at all?

'portato' is the correct term for this articulation.

does that make any sense at all?

@kubunggo-The staccato note means that you also play the second note instead of tying it.

Hmmm... I thought portato was a line drawn above the note. When it is tied and has two staccato marks, there are several meanings depending on how it is used. Sometimes, it means that you play both notes but connect them with pedal. other times it can mean to put slight separation. Like Thorn said, it's hard to describe with words. I'll ask my teacher for a more exact definition.

a line above the note is called a tenuto

ah.... my bad sorry too many music terms to remember :heh:

I see it as tonguing and releasing it hard.

I say you imporvise. Do it different every time. Keep people on thier feet, that's the only way you will get them to keep coming back.

'portato' is the correct term for this articulation.

the difference between portato and legato is in the attack. its difficult to explain over the internet really, but with legato playing on a piano you just transfer the weight from finger to finger. with portato you combine this with attacking each note as if it were staccato.

does that make any sense at all?

** Listen to this guy everyone ^_^

There's a piece with such notes in the trinity piano grd 8 exam syllabus.It's Beethovens sonata in e flat major.My instructor told me to play them both normally but separately(i.e not staccato but not slurred either).
--hope this helps