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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.