Once you're comfortable reading notes and rhythms in music, you may begin to notice other markings over or under the notes. These are called articulations, and you can think of them as the punctuations in music.

Just as commas, exclamation points, and question marks guide how a sentence should be read and interpreted, articulations tell you how musical notes and phrases should be played. Articulations give you instructions on the length, volume, and connectedness of notes within a piece of music. Even with these instructions, articulations are executed differently depending on the player and the context of the piece, leaving plenty of room for your personal touch.

Keep reading to learn what the different articulation markings mean and how to play them on the piano.

Types of articulations

There are many types of articulations, and each is associated with a marking and a descriptive word, usually in Italian. Here's an overview of the most common types of articulations that you should know. Later on, we'll cover each of these types of articulations in detail.

Legato

Legato is the term we use to describe smooth and connected notes. Its direct translation from Italian is "tied together." If you see the word legato written in your music, that means you should play with little-to-no space between the notes, and even let them overlap a bit.

You can think of playing legato like walking — when we walk, our front foot hits the ground before we pick up our back foot. To make a passage of music legato, play the following note before you lift the previous note, lifting your finger quickly thereafter to avoid "blurring" the sound. Try to apply even pressure to the keys on each note to make them sound smooth.

Slurs

Legato can also be indicated by slurs. Slurred notes should be played legato, and slurs can encompass from as little as two notes to many measures of music.

Staccato

Staccato means "detached" in Italian, and in music, it indicates short and disconnected notes.  It is marked with a dot over/under the notehead. When you see this, you should play the note as short as possible, leaving plenty of space between it and the notes around. To achieve the staccato effect, try quickly tapping the key and releasing it immediately, similarly to how you would knock on a door.

Tenuto

Tenuto comes from the Italian word tenere, which means "to hold." Unlike staccato, tenuto tells you that a note should be held for its full length. It can be marked with the word tenuto, abbreviation ten., or a line over/under the notehead.

Accents

Sometimes, a note will have an accent on it, which means you should emphasize it by playing it a bit louder than the rest of the notes in the section. Since accents are at the intersection between articulations and dynamics, they should be played relative to the dynamic level of the section. So, you probably wouldn't play an accented note in a piano section at fortissimo.

A regular accent is marked with the symbol > over or under the notehead.

But, there are other accent markings that are more nuanced. Here are a few types of accents you might see.

Fermata

Fermata comes from the Italian word fermare, which means "to stop." It's usually found at the end of a section of music, and is marked with a symbol over or under the note. When you see a note with a fermata, you should hold it longer than its note value — how much longer can be up to your interpretation. A good rule of thumb if you're not sure is to hold a fermata for 1.5 times the length of the note.

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