I was introduced to portato with a piece I am learning at my piano lesson.

I understand the concept of how to play it and my teacher demonstrated it and I played it with her to get the sense of how it should sound and feel.

I am interested in knowing how the various teachers on this forum teach portato to their students.

In a staccato, your finger comes up faster than the key; in a portato, you're controlling the length of the tone, which is separating one tone from the next. I tell my students to think of a "sticky staccato". Non-legato is another term.

In wind music it's called soft tonguing.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Thank you! this clears up continuing confusion I've had with portato! I understand how to do it on strings, I've never understood on piano...although my teacher tells me I make it sound right generally, I've never known how to correctly conceptualize it.

Thank you!

I find it curious that in the States you use terms like "non-legato". I have never heard a terminology like that in any European language.

I have also noted the use of the word "detached", which misses the point.

It is debilitating to not use a word like portato, it deprives one of the succinct understanding of this essential musical concept.

Portato is a touch in its own right. It is neither non-staccato nor non-legato.

Portato means "carried" or "ported". In French we say "portée".

You press the key and you carry the note for its duration.

Speaking of term explanations - what about portamento? This one drives me nuts and I have a hard time explaining it to students.

Thanks!

As I was saying ...

We also use tenuto, which is incorrect, but common.

And not to quibble, but in English (American version), it is correct to say portato is both non-staccato and non-legato.

You say portAto, and I say portaaato ....

sorry, couldn't resist.

It's funny, when you think about it: "non-staccato" means "not detached" and "non-legato" means "not linked".

Where does that leave you?

Excellent !

"Sliding from one note to another", "a continuous movement in pitch from the lower to the higher note"

Not doable by standard means on an acoustic piano.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portamento
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory21.htm
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musicalsymbols.htm

Who ever said English was rational?

Agh - there's part or my confusion. I realize now that I've been using the wrong word! Apparently, I've been calling portato "portamento" and confusing the terms.

Well, that clears alot up!

In that case, is a slurred staccato ALWAYS portato? what if a staccato note is part of a phrase, how would you notate that?

Portamento is easily played on a trombone, impossible on a piano.

Glissando is the reverse.

Portato is how Michala Patri plays recorder.

If there's one staccato note (or more) under a slur and it is obvious that it is part of a phrase, well, the staccato has to be shorter. Staccato doesn't mean accented (kind of suggests the opposite), so making it shorter doesn't mean it has to break the phrase.

There can be multiple "nested" slurs, if they are required to make things clear. However, not all phrasing has to be marked with slurs.

Check http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory21.htm#slurstaccato

Erus, the dot refers to the beginning of the note (a soft accent) not the end. Originally the staccato dot was as much an accent as it was a shortener - see CPE Bach Versuch.

Just to further comment on "portamento" which literally means to "carry the mind". The best illustration is when listening to opera singers as they descend from a high note to a lower one, singing notes in between. It is not quite the same as a slide (as in the example of a trombone), because the slide contains tones outside of the key signature (and even outside of a 12-tone system of temperment). In portamento, only the notes of the scale are used, which can be imitated then by the piano with a quick scale. However, the singer can also leave out notes, or only choose to poratmento part of the way.

Are you sure of that, Morodiene?

Yes, it is Italian in origin. "Portare" is to carry, and "mente" is mind.

Ah, but mento is Italian for .... chin!

Then there are always these things, which can be carried, I suppose.

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That is not how I've ever seen the term used. Portamento is used in my experience specifically to discriminate between the glissando, which IS limited to the scalewise notes, and the portamento, which slides across all pitches like a trombone or an opera singer.

Think of the opening to Rhapsody in Blue, where the clarinet starts out with a glissando and transitions to portamento part way up. (Many trombone players use gliss as a short hand notation for portamento, but we know the difference.)

I looked this up online, the illustrations were "vocal slide." Singers I've talked with understand it the same as I (and it's fairly controversial with cello players, mostly over how much is tasteful).

But doesn't a staccato under a slur indicate portato? then it's not longer staccato - correct?
I guess my question is, if there is a staccato under a slur is it ALWAYS portato? eg. many phrases have a slur with staccato markings, and then the phrase continues but the slur is ended and there are more notes with staccato, now meant to be played staccato (b/c of the absence of the slur). For example, in the Italian Concerto I, portato is very often followed by staccato.

Watch this video at around 2:00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PomIF3s2-OY

She does does portamento up to the a flat and then down again. The ascending one is faster, but there are many notes missing (unlike, for instance, a slide, which contains every possible note in between two pitches as in the clarinet in Rhapsody in Blue). The descending one is still portamento, although you may call it a glissando. However, there is no glissando written in the music in either place. I have rarely ever seen glissandos written in solo vocal music (maybe once in a choral arrangement). It is always up the the singer to decide where to use portamento.

So I guess I'm saying that glissando is a kind of portamento, as well as a slide, but singers in opera do not slide. That is not tasteful in the style.

I defer to your opera knowledge. I've played in the orchestra for a couple, but don't claim to be a fan.

Country singers commonly slide. It is considered tastefully stylish - though it certainly grates on my ears.

Well, being an opera singer myself, I have studied it perhaps a bit more. I also was only referring to singing operatically/classically, and not pop or country. If you listen to some of the great singers (better in the past than present operatic singers) the use of portamento is all over the place, but never as a slide.