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Understanding musical signs and symbolsLegato

Composers use a range of signs and symbols to convey how they want their music to be played. Understanding these will help you perform more accurately and with more style.

Part of MusicUnderstanding music

Legato

Legato symbol - a curved line above affected notes

A curved line above or below a group of notes tells you those notes should be played legato 鈥 smoothly, with no gaps between the notes.

A slur is a legato line over a few notes which means they should not be rearticulated. For example, all the notes are played with one bow movement on a string instrument or played without tonguing each note on a wind instrument.

Listen to the two examples below to hear how the same notes sound when played normally and played legato.

No legato

Legato