The answer is ARPEGGIO (8 letters).
Why ARPEGGIO fits
An arpeggio is a chord whose notes are played one after another rather than together, which is literally a broken chord. The word comes from the Italian arpeggiare, to play the harp, because harpists naturally sound chords this way. Eight letters with four vowels makes it a long-slot workhorse.
Every answer by letter count
| Letters | Answer | When it is used |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ARPEGGIO | The standard answer |
| 5 | ROLLS | When the clue suggests a rolled chord |
| 6 | SPREAD | British puzzles, spread chord |
Clues that share these answers
- Harp-like passage
- Notes played in sequence
- Piano exercise
- Chord played one note at a time
- Italian musical term
How arpeggios are written and played
In sheet music a broken chord is marked either by writing the notes out in sequence or by placing a wavy vertical line to the left of a stacked chord, which instructs the player to roll it from the bottom up. Both mean the same thing in performance.
Arpeggios matter beyond notation because they are the backbone of instrumental practice. Scales teach the notes of a key and arpeggios teach the notes of a chord, which is why method books drill them in parallel. That is also why puzzles clue the word through piano exercise as often as through harmony.
The related music clues to know
Music terminology gives constructors a deep well of vowel-heavy Italian words, and a handful recur constantly. LEGATO means smoothly connected, STACCATO means detached, GLISSANDO is a slide across pitches, and TREMOLO is the rapid repetition of a single note. All are clued through plain English definitions rather than through notation.
ARPEGGIO belongs to that group and is the longest of the common ones at eight letters, which is why it usually appears as a themed entry or a long across rather than as incidental fill.
Confirming it in your grid
Count the squares before committing. If the length matches the row above and one crossing letter agrees, you can fill the rest with confidence. When two answers of the same length both fit the clue, the crossings decide it, and it is usually faster to solve the crossing entry than to argue with the definition.