Staccato
Playing notes short and detached, with clear silence between them, rather than letting them sustain.
Staccato is written in notation as a dot over or under the note, but on guitar it is produced with the hands: the fret hand releases the string, or the picking hand mutes it, immediately after the attack. The result is a crisp, spiky line that works especially well on repeated notes and funk or ska rhythms, where the gaps are as important as the notes. The opposite marking, tenuto, means hold the note for its full value.
Example: A funk rhythm part where every chord is chopped short and leaves space between hits is largely staccato playing.
See also
Related
- PageLegato
- PageMuting
- PageDotted note
- PageAccent
- PageAction height
- PageAlternate picking
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley