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Question about playing "legato":

Isn't the normal style of play also "legato"? I don't have a teacher so I have to ask here..

How I usually play is pressing one finger down, then the moment the other finger comes down, lift that one up. (walking the fingers?) I suppose there is probably no overlap, but it sounds almost exactly like "legato". Is this the correct "normal" play style?

Maybe the problem is that I just don't hear the difference. I've been listening to some of the songs on the DVD (played on piano), and can't identify legato versus normal-style of play.

Also, I find playing legato really hard. I can do it when I play really slow, but not at a normal tempo. Both fingers need to fully press down the key for a split moment, right?

Last question, I'm playing "Love somebody" (song nr 20 in self teaching alfred).

Now, in the second measure you have a - b -c in the right hand, and harmonic intervals in the left hand. To change from one interval to the next, one must lift the fingers from the keys completely right? That works when I only play the left hand, but when I combine this with the right hand, it's really hard to "walk the fingers" in the right hand.

You have to lift the fingers off the left hand first, then change the fingers and press down. At the same time, you must walk the fingers AFTER first lifting the left hand fingers and then press them down simultaneously. find that hard to coordinate. Or am I doing something fundamentally wrong here? What happens if I don't think about it is that I play staccato in the right hand instead.

Thanks. Sorry if this is really dumb, not having a teacher and all

Legato means playing smoothly with no spaces between the notes. This is in contrast to staccato.

Watch the beginning of this video to see the difference:
Video lesson on legato v. staccato



There is no legato arc over this part in the song, so you shouldn't need to walk your fingers like in legato. You can lift them off the keys a bit, but they probably shouldn't be a very short stab like in staccato either.

Thanks, would have been nice if that video also included the normal play style though, but perhaps that is just obvious to everyone but me

It's not really "walking the fingers", more like "marching the fingers". But that seems to be what the video describes as legato as well (see-saw). So you have to lift the fingers off a bit before pressing the next key in normal play? Wish there was some better video describing this all or a teacher in my neighborhood which doesn't charge an arm and a leg

This video should help answer your questions:
eHow - Piano Staccato & Legato Techniques

The teacher in the video talks about how there is a very slight overlap of the notes played in legato.

By the way, the first three slurs in Love Somebody are over notes which make up a G Major chord (G, B, and D), and therefore you can do quite a bit of overlapping between these notes and they still sound quite nice.

Then the teacher shows the difference between legato and playing normally where there is a slight lift off between the notes, and staccato where the duration of the note is very short.

I've started a new thread on Fingering.

I wouldn't stress too much on lifting each note before hitting the next or else your music might end up sounding too choppy. Just when you play normally, try to play so that your notes don't overlap.

As to legato, try to play it so that there is no space between the notes, that they are tied or slurred together.

Like you have found, there is a fine line between the two. There is very little difference between someone playing normally but smoothly and between someone playing legato style. Just pay attention not to overlap when you play normally.



Thank you, PianoStudent88, it's been bookmarked.

Been working on Amazing Grace for the past few weeks. There's a lot on the plate in this piece: various triad chords, rolling chords, dynamics, pedaling, etc.

I'm trying at times to play it without looking at the keyboard for the most part, just looking at the book, though I usually fumble about the keyboard a bit.

I am trying to do do the same, play full piece without looking to the keyboard, in "The Stranger". It takes a long time to me. I am playing some pieces from DeBenedeti site (level 1, yet).

fliper and Johnny D, have you been practicing from the beginning how to find your way by feel and not look at the keyboard, or are you just starting it now?

Same here! Thanks, PianoStudent88! That's a PhD thesis!

Usually when I play, I go back and forth from looking at the book to looking at the keyboard. Usually after a week or so, I will have learned a given piece in this book by memory, but it will still need work to get it to a decent level.

Sometimes I can play a piece with my eyes closed (maybe not some of these pieces at the end of the book) so when I say that now I am trying just to look at the book, it is more so that I work more on my sight-reading which I felt needed work.

With Amazing Grace, I am trying to look at each note and follow it in the sheet music as I play it. So, yes that is pretty much a new thing for me.

Johnny D, you might find it helpful as you work on your reading, to go back over the whole book and play everything reading the music, and not looking at the keys.

Good for you for working on this in Amazing Grace.

Thanks for the advice. This morning I went through some pieces in the beginning of the book doing what you said.

Yes, I used this book to help me reboot my piano skills. I found it very useful and user friendly. My piano and my books are my teachers this time around.

I'm the opposite... I played the whole book without looking at the keyboard except for Amazing Grace... At that point, I realized I paid so much attention to play as smoothly as I can but I might have missed watching my basic hand techniques...

My friend's 8 year old son starts a new piece with only a few measures everyday. Majority of the time, he works on his hand techniques, that is, he polishes every single hit of the key. As a result, once he can play the whole piece, his fingers naturally fall on keyboard beautifully! I love to watch him play once he had it together!



Me too! looking forward to listening to your recordings!

I am practicing it from the beginning. "The Stranger" has some jumps, not only one or two as previous pieces.

Hi everybody! I've been using this book for 3 months and I'm now working on Scarborough Fair, and hitting my very first wall really hard. I'm almost there without the overlapping pedal but as soon as I add it I seem to lose control of my hands. The other songs would just "click" after a few tries (practicing hands separate for a while and then putting them together), but not this one. Any tips? Thanks!

sinophilia, I can't remember if there are any preparatory exercises for overlapping pedal in Alfred's, but here are some things to try.

The basic principle is as your hands/fingers come DOWN to play a note, your foot is coming UP to clear the previous note, and then down again immediately to catch the new note.

Practice exercises:
1. Pedaling on next beat. Play a series of chords, e.g. diatonic chords in C major: C, Dm, Em, F, etc. Hold each for four beats. Play the first chord. Depress the pedal on beat 2. Play the second chord (this is beat 1 again). Raise and depress the pedal on beat 2. Continue up and down the scale with chords like this. Count out loud as you do this. On beat two, say "up down": One Up Down Three Four, One Up Down Three Four. Etc. Say this in rhythm.

2. Pedaling on next half-beat. Same exercises as above, except raise and depress the pedal a half-beat after you play the note: on the "and" of "1 and" as if counting eighth notes. Count out loud while you do this: One Up Down Two Three Four, One Up Down Three Four. (The "Up Down" will be very quick: like sixteenth notes.)

3. Overlapping pedalling. Same exercise as above, but raise the pedal as you play the new note, and then depress it immediately. Count out loud: Up Down Two Three Four, Up Down Two Three Four.

4. Practice Scarborough Fair really slowly. You can isolate the pedaling by playing a note or two before the pedal point, then play the pedalled note (raising and lowering the pedal), then a note or two after it. Repeat for one pedal point. Practice other pedal points this way. Then, continuing to play slowly, practice playing from a beat before one pedal point to a beat after the next pedal point: chaining two pedal points together.

In all of the above, you can start off playing without keeping time, but say "Up Down" out loud as you raise and depress the pedal. Then later add in playing it rhythmically.

Wow, thank you PianoStudent88! I will try all of that later today.

In this book the overlapping pedal comes up first with Greensleeves but it's not a problem there as it's all solid chords. I'm just afraid that if I spend hours on such easy things it will be too much of a struggle when I get to more challenging stuff... but then I guess it takes time to nail down the basics and it's important to get them right from the beginning.

sinophilia, it's good to give each skill/technique/piece as much time as it needs to feel solid in it. Yes, some skills you will continue to improve at over time (maybe all skills! I'm just now starting to feel more sensitive about simply how I push down a key!), but it's good to have a reasonably solid base before layering on new things.

Alfred's doesn't necessarily indicate by how many pieces they give a skill, how much time that skill needs. For example, dotted quarter RH rhythm vs. the straight quarters LH in Blow The Man Down: Alfred's just throws that in in one piece, and then moves on. But in fact that's a skill that could use lots of preparatory exercises before even trying it in Blow The Man Down, and then practice in more pieces than just that one piece.

And of course some people need more time on some things, and less time on others.