Legato: connecting the notes

The piano is a percussion instrument: each sound starts dying away as soon as it is produced. Yet all piano music dreams of singing. Legato ("bound" in Italian) is the art of creating the illusion of a continuous line, like a voice or a violin. In the score it is shown by a slur: a curve spanning several different notes.

The gesture: "walking" on the keys

Think of walking: you never lift one foot before the other is down. At the piano it is the same: the next finger presses its key at the exact moment the previous finger releases its own. The arm's weight passes from finger to finger as body weight passes from foot to foot.

• Too early: the two sounds overlap and blur (unless intended, an effect called legatissimo).
• Too late: a tiny gap of silence slips between the notes and the line is broken.

M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:1/4=72
K:C
(!1!C !2!D !3!E !2!D) | (!1!C !3!E !5!G2) | (!5!G !4!F !3!E !2!D) | !1!C4 |]

Exercise: hold, then release

1. Put your right hand in C position. Play C with the thumb and hold it.
2. Slowly press D with finger 2. At the precise instant D sounds, let C come up (without lifting the thumb into the air: it rises with the key).
3. Carry on to E, F, G, then come back down. Listen: no gaps, no overlaps.
4. Then play the example above focusing on the transfer of weight: you should feel the arm "rolling" from one finger to the next.
5. Do it with the left hand (an octave lower), then hands together.

The end of the slur

A legato phrase breathes like a spoken sentence: the last note under the slur is lighter, and the hand lifts gently with a supple wrist movement ("the drop falls, the hand floats away"). This little breathing gesture instantly makes phrases sound musical.