Dynamic markings tell the performer how loud a passage should be, and articulation markings tell the performer how each note begins and ends. Both are relative. A pp in a quiet chamber and a pp in a large hall are different sounds, and a staccato on a bowed string is a different gesture from a staccato on the piano. The score sets a direction, and the performer chooses the actual sound from the room, the instrument and the passage around the mark.
\nThe main dynamic markings are Italian abbreviations, and they run in steps from very soft to very loud. Each step is louder than the one before it, but no marking says how many decibels a step is. For the staff and its clefs, see how to read sheet music.
\n| Marking | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pp | pianissimo | very soft |
| p | piano | soft |
| mp | mezzo piano | moderately soft |
| mf | mezzo forte | moderately loud |
| f | forte | loud |
| ff | fortissimo | very loud |
| sf or sfz | sforzando | a sudden, strong accent on one note |
| fp | forte-piano | loud, then immediately soft |
Ppp and fff exist for passages beyond the ends of the ladder, and their meaning follows the same pattern. Because the levels are relative, a player checks each marking against the players around them. A forte in a solo passage and a forte in a full orchestra are not the same sound.
\nSf and fp are not levels. A sforzando marks one note as sudden and strong, and the notes after it return to the prevailing dynamic. A forte-piano marks a loud attack that falls at once to soft. The examples on this page cannot play either.
\nThe first example plays a seven-note line marked pp. The playback engine sets its loudness on a fixed scale, so the difference between pp and ff is clear even though a real instrument will not follow the same numbers.
\nThe second plays the same line marked ff.
\nOnly the loudness changes between the two. The playback uses 30 per cent of the loudest setting for pp and the full setting for ff, with p, mp, mf and f set between them. These are playback levels for listening, not decibels.
\nMuch music changes level within a phrase. A crescendo, shown by a hairpin that widens to the right, asks for a gradual increase in loudness across the notes it spans. A diminuendo, or decrescendo, is the reverse, a hairpin that narrows to the right and asks for a gradual decrease. The hairpin begins at the level of the marking before it, so a crescendo that starts from p is a different instruction from one that starts from mf.
\nSubito, meaning suddenly, marks an abrupt change, as in subito p after a loud passage. The examples on this page hold one level from start to finish, so they cannot demonstrate a hairpin or a subito change. To hear the difference on your own instrument, play the same line at mp, then mf, then f, and compare the three.
\nArticulation marks govern how a note is joined to the next and how long it sounds within its written value. Most are written as small signs above or below the note.
\nThe engraved examples in this article do not draw these signs. The articulation setting changes only the playback. The next two examples play the same four notes, first staccato and then legato.
\nUnder the staccato setting, each note sounds for about a third of its written value, so the gaps between notes are audible. The legato setting does the opposite, holding each note slightly past its value so that the notes run into each other.
\nListen for the gaps. In the first example the silence between notes is part of the musical line. In the second there is none.
\nA mark of f with staccato is a loud, sharp attack. A mark of p with legato is a soft, connected line. A performer should not read either pair as a louder or softer version of the other. Each mark sets a different property of the same note: loudness in one case, and length and joining in the other.
\nThe same sign also means different things on different instruments. On a bowed string, staccato can mean a short stroke on the string, a bounced spiccato, or a martelé. On the piano, staccato is a quick release of the key. On wind instruments, tonguing shapes the start of each note. The string bowing article covers the bowing forms in detail, and the same dot is a different physical act for each.
\nThe first error is to treat dynamic markings as fixed. A pp is a relative instruction. In a loud tutti it sounds soft only against the sound around it, and the same marking in a chamber passage asks for a different sound. Choose the level by the context.
\nThe second is to think staccato changes the note value. It does not. Staccato changes how the note is played, while the notated value stays the same and the bar still counts the full duration. A dot does not remove a beat from a bar.
\nThe third is to read a slur as a tie. Both are curved lines, but only a tie joins notes of the same pitch and makes them one sound. A slur joins notes of different pitches into one phrase, and a single slur can span a long passage.
\nThe fourth is to think a marking applies only to the note it sits under. A dynamic stays in force until the next dynamic marking, and an articulation usually governs only the notes it touches. A phrase is shaped by the changes between its marks, so a single p on the first note says little about where the phrase should go.
\nChoose a short melody of five to eight notes, and play it at pp, mp, mf, f and ff. Listen to each step and decide, for your instrument and room, where the ladder begins and ends. Then play the same melody staccato, legato and tenuto, and listen to the change in the joins.
\nNext, combine the two. Play the melody mf and staccato, then p and legato, and say which one is more active and which more settled. Write out a four-bar line with at least one hairpin, one staccato and one slur, and play it at a tempo you can keep. Before you start, say the marks aloud in order, so that each sign changes your playing before the note arrives. Tempo words such as largo to presto set the pace that the dynamics sit on, and the two should be learned together.
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