(Italian, ‘detached’)
Staccato is a musical technique in which performers play a note, or series of notes, in a quick and
choppy manner.
Staccato is the opposite of legato, which means to “tie” a
note to the preceding and following notes in a smooth manner.
Note: while similar, the terms staccato and pizzicato cannot
be used interchangeably.
Pizzicato (plucking a string) is a form of staccato (playing a
note in a quick, choppy manner), but staccato is not always
achieved through pizzicato.
Many instruments (woodwind, brass,
percussion) can produce staccato notes without strings.