Glissando

Joining by gliding

Glissando comes from the French “glisser”, “to glide”. It means joining two notes by gliding: from the starting note to the target note, upward or downward, over any number of intermediate notes. It is notated by a line that leads from the first to the second note, straight or wavy, often with the inscription “gliss.”.

Stepped or continuous

How a glissando sounds depends on the instrument. With the voice, on the violin and on the slide trombone it is continuous: the pitch changes without steps. On the piano, the harp and the xylophone the intermediate notes are audible one by one, as you glide over keys or strings. On the guitar the finger glides along the string; across the frets this gives a series of close single notes. The music example on this page plays the semitone steps.

Glissando and portamento

Both words describe a glide but are not distinguished uniformly. In some contexts they mean the same. According to a widespread distinction, portamento is a softer carrying-over between two notes, especially in singing and with strings, without the intermediate notes being stressed individually. The glissando, by contrast, often includes the series of intermediate notes that are meant to be heard.

Common mistakes

• Missing the target: The glissando ends on the target note, not just anywhere.
• Gliding too slowly: It should sound like a single movement.
• Not distinguishing glissando and portamento: The score with “gliss.” means the continuous line.