Articulation:

What is articulation?: Articulation in music describes how a note is played in order to create a specific sound. There are many different ways a note can be articulated and I will mention some of the common ones that are used for various instruments and in later chapters I will discuss more instrument specific techniques and articulation. Each form

Staccato: The word staccato means 'detached' and indicates that a musician should play the note sharply and without attaching it to the next note. A note will have a small dot underneath it in order to indicate that it should be played staccato.

Legato: Legato is the opposite of staccato and requires the musician to play the notes without separation so that the music 'flows'. It is indicated through the use of a slur.

Slur: A slur is a curved line placed over or under the notes to indicate to a musician that they must play those notes with legato.

Accents: An accent, as the name suggests is used by musicians to 'accent' a note so that it is played louder or with a stronger approach than other unaccented notes. It is written as an arrow facing right underneath the notes.

Glissando: Glissando derives from the French word meaning 'to glide' and basically refers to a 'slide' where a musician will move either up or down from a note normally across at lease an octave. On string, brass and wind instruments this can be done without any audible changes in note (e.g. like on a piano). It is commonly written as a line connection two notes with gliss. written on the line.

Fermata: A fermata is often referred to as a 'hold' or 'pause' and indicates that a musician must pause and hold the given note/chord for longer than the note value indicated. Conductors will often indicate when they want a fermata to end. Fermata's are very powerful as they change the overall rhythm of a piece.

Example:

Below is a short video demonstrating of the articulation markings I have talked about previously. The video includes staccato, slurs, glissandos, accents and fermata. You can clearly see the difference the articulation markings make in changing the sound of each of the phrases. For example in bar 1 you can hear how the use of staccato dramatically changes how the note sounds by making it sound shorter. You can also hear the difference a fermata makes to the music, at the end of bar 8 you can hear how there is a slight pause before the C in bar 9 in played. This is unlike the end of bar 10 where the C is played almost instantly after the end of bar 10.

Felix Collar Articulation Work .mov

Why do we use articulation?:

Articulation markings are used to indicate certain performance styles used throughout music. Articulation is used by composers to help create variety and to enhance the music. A musician reading this music will need to know when the articulations are used in order to recreate the music as intended by the composer. The markings need to be clear and different from each other so that a musician can easily distinguish the different articulations. A con of articulation markings is that they are represented by symbols and a musician must learn what these symbols mean in order to play them.