# Glissando (Italian, from French glisser, "to slide")

Source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/glissando
Also known as: gliss.

**A glissando is a continuous slide from one pitch to another, notated with a line between the two notes, and on a string instrument it is produced by keeping the finger pressed while the hand travels.**

Because a string instrument has no frets, the slide is genuinely continuous rather than a rapid scale, which distinguishes a string glissando from a piano or harp glissando where every intervening note sounds separately. The written notes are the destination and the origin; everything between them is audible smear, and that is the point.

Speed and bow pressure decide the character. A slow, light glissando is expressive; a fast, heavy one is a special effect. Bartók, Ravel, and film composers all use it for sound rather than for melody.

It is distinct from portamento, which is a discreet expressive slide used to connect notes within a phrase and is normally not written at all. A glissando is asked for; a portamento is a matter of taste.

Canonical source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/glissando