Glissando

Graceful, Tasteful Guitar Slide

"Glissando - performed with a gliding effect
by sliding one or more fingers rapidly over
piano keys or strings..."

This technique, sometimes known as portamento or slide, is when you move from one note to another in a piece of music on the same string without lifting your finger entirely off it. It is meant to add expression and should be performed tastefully.

In music notation it is usually indicated by the word “gliss” and there is usually a small line drawn between notes in the score or sheet music itself.

In actual fact, the word portamento and glissando may be misnomers in guitar music as the portamento is usually played by fretless instruments and, according to Fred Noad the gliss… "sounds the succession of notes individually in the form of a fast scale, and necessitates a minute pause of the left hand at each fret…This technique is extremely rare in guitar music."

Classical guitar players (and others) are really performing a slide which is, more often than not, faster and even more graceful than the "gliss" or portamento.

Whatever you want to call it, it shouldn’t really matter if the end goal is to add some graceful and tasteful skills to your overall guitar technique.

This is how Francisco Tarrega used a glissando or slide at the start of his mazurka called "Marieta"...

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As you can see, the slide that is used is on the second string. It starts at the "C" note on the first fret and slides to the "E" note on the 5th fret.

It is good idea to make these slides or glissandos part of your daily practice. You can use different fingers and practice on different strings until you get a good feel for the gliding/sliding motion. You need to let off a little pressure from when you are fingering the note but make sure your finger doesn’t come off the string or the sliding sound shall be lost.

Again, like everything with guitar, it’s going to take some honest practice on your part but believe me, it’s worth it in the end.

Here's a dictionary definition about the glissando...

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