I am curious how most of you guys play legato? Do you guys take special care to insure 2 notes overlap each other for a small moment in time? Is it possible to exaggerate this action too much? It sounds simple but its always fun to re-examine the basics

The finger striking the second key signals the release of the first. I can't think of any better way to describe it, other than souplesse.

Yes, I'll take some too. I love soup.



Seriously though - Legato is something I thought as being easy to do, until my teacher said I was not playing legato enough. Since I am so used to my own playing and sound, I didn't realize that I was not always playing very legato, so I have to pay extra attention to this. I think leaving one finger down a little longer when the other one comes down works in situations when the harmony is not blurred, or when you are moving slowly from one set of keys to another and it has to so flawlessly, or more like seamlessly connected. A piece I'm working on right now has to be soooo legato in places, and it's taking a lot of experimenting with all of that. And if you get to use the pedal, you can control the sound also.

i just ignore the legato markings and venture off to my own creative world

Yeah I do the same exact thing. I don't really follow the exact markings in the music, I just kind of do what I feel would sound best. Mostly I try to make everything as legato as possible, though. I just hate the sound of lifting up and detachment unless I know the piece would sound sucky if it weren't detached.

I kind of do the same thing with the pedal. I don't think I've ever followed the pedal markings for even more than a few measures of a piece. It just adds too much more to concentrate on for me, and I just like music that uses a lot of pedal. Not to the point where you can't distinguish individual tones from each other, but again that kind of has to do with the legato thing.

Anyone use the pedal as a complete substitute for legato? I don't, but I was just wondering if anybody would actually do that.

You know these days I tend to practise my legato first without any pedal at all. I tend to add my pedaling after. If a try to do it all at the same time its just too much for me. Also it is a different sound, legato without the pedal isn't it? I am thinking with the pedal itself the note dies out too quickly or becomes too thin for a nice legato (I am not at the piano so I can't experiment, just going by memory?)

[quote="chopinman0901"]Yeah I do the same exact thing. I don't really follow the exact markings in the music, I just kind of do what I feel would sound best. Mostly I try to make everything as legato as possible, though. I just hate the sound of lifting up and detachment unless I know the piece would sound sucky if it weren't detached.

I kind of do the same thing with the pedal. I don't think I've ever followed the pedal markings for even more than a few measures of a piece. It just adds too much more to concentrate on for me, and I just like music that uses a lot of pedal. Not to the point where you can't distinguish individual tones from each other, but again that kind of has to do with the legato thing.

Anyone use the pedal as a complete substitute for legato? I don't, but I was just wondering if anybody would actually do that.[/quote]

Like a lot of other interpretive tools, I think there are many gradations of legato. Personally, I always call this: more finger pedaling than legato. For instance, in Bach or other Baroque, and some Mozart & Haydn, finger pedaling can be used to emphasize a motif or pull together the accompaniment.



I hate that too. I call it dry and wet. I like a wet sound, but so many like to play very dry. It seems affected to me, not really a genuine sound.

I'm the kind of horrible person who has an insane pedal fetish...

I like the blending together of different harmonies, sometimes to the point where it can become extremely dissonant... And sometimes I have to actually remind myself to use the pedal less, because I've actually caught myself playing through entire pieces, never lifting off the pedal.

I've become kind of immune to dissonance... When I was younger, I used to actually have problems listening to a 7 chord, because I thought it was "dissonant" ... now I don't even hear dissonance at all... minor 2nds do nothing to me!

However, when I finally manage to break away from my pedal, I tend to release the first note, only when the second has been hit.

... I think my teacher would kill me if I did that...

I do that too, and my teacher hates it