glissando

Glissando, from Italian glissare meaning to glide, is a musical term for a continuous slide from one pitch to another. It can be performed in many contexts, and in notation is usually indicated by a wavy line or by the instruction glissando (often shortened to gliss.). The line may connect two notes at the staff or extend through a range of pitches, and glissandi may be diatonic (moving through adjacent notes of a scale) or chromatic (containing semitone steps).

In performance, glissando is realized differently by different instruments. On string instruments, it is produced by sliding a finger along the string while bowing or plucking, creating a smooth pitch transition. On keyboard instruments, a true continuous slide is impractical, but players commonly sweep a hand or the forearm across the keys to produce a rapid cascade of pitches; some keyboards reproduce this with special devices. On guitar, a player may use a slide or finger technique to glide between fretted pitches. In singing and brass playing, a related effect is portamento, a smooth glide within a phrase; glissando often implies a more deliberate sweep across many pitches.

Historically, glissando has been used as a notable expressive device in classical music and later adopted in jazz and popular genres to convey drama, speed, or ambiguity. Its exact execution depends on instrument, repertoire, and performance practice.