Portamento
A smooth glide from one pitch to another, carrying the sound through the intervening notes rather than jumping.
Portamento is the vocal and string technique of sliding between notes so the ear follows a continuous line, and it is the classical cousin of the guitar glissando. On guitar it is most often heard as a slide up or down a string with the finger held in contact, or as a bend that stops short of being a discrete interval change. The distinction from glissando is one of emphasis rather than technique: both describe a slide, but portamento stresses the expressive connection between two defined pitches.
Example: A slide between two notes of a phrase, with no attempt to articulate the notes in between, is played as portamento.
See also
Related
- PageGlissando
- PageSlide technique
- PageVibrato technique
- PageAccent
- PageAction height
- PageAlternate picking
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley