Slurs and ties: how to tell them apart

A slur and a tie are both curved lines, and they look the same. The difference is in the notes they join. A tie joins two notes of the same pitch into one long note. A slur joins two or more different notes, and it tells the player to connect them in one smooth group.

The one-second test

Look at the two notes at the ends of the curve.

• Same line or same space? It is a tie. Play the first note, and hold it for the length of both.
• Different lines or spaces? It is a slur. Play every note, with no gaps between them.

Side by side

	Tie	Slur
Joins	Two notes of the same pitch	Two or more notes of different pitches
What the player does	Plays once, and holds	Plays each note, joined to the next
What it changes	How long the note lasts	How the notes are connected
How many notes	Two at a time	Any number

What a tie is for

A tie adds two note lengths together. A quarter note tied to a quarter note lasts two beats.

Ties do two jobs that no single note can do.

Crossing a bar line. A note cannot spill over a bar line. To hold a sound from the end of one bar into the next, the composer writes two notes and ties them.

Making an odd length. A half note tied to an eighth note lasts two and a half beats. No single note is that long.

Read dotted notes and ties explained for kids and measures and bar lines explained for kids.

What a slur is for

A slur asks for legato, which means smooth and connected. Each note is joined to the next with no silence between. Read staccato and legato explained for kids.

What a slur means in practice depends on the instrument.

Instrument	Under one slur, the player
Piano	Holds each key until the next one goes down
Violin, viola, cello, and bass	Plays all the notes in one stroke of the bow
Flute, clarinet, trumpet, and other winds	Tongues the first note only, and keeps the air going
Voice	Sings all the notes on one syllable

For string players, slurs are bowing marks. A new slur means a new bow. Students learn slurred pairs early: two notes in one bow.

Long curves

A long curve over many notes marks a phrase, which is a musical sentence. It shows where the idea begins and ends. Pianists lift the hand a little at the end of the curve.

Tricky cases

A tie inside a slur. A long slur can cover notes that are also tied. Hold the tied notes, and connect the rest.

Three notes the same. Two ties in a row join three notes of the same pitch. Play once, and hold for all three.

A sharp or a flat. A sharp or a flat on the first note of a tie carries over to the second note, even across a bar line.

Dots under a slur. Notes with dots under a slur are played a little apart, with a gentle touch. On a string instrument, they share one bow with small stops between them.

Things to do together

Tie or slur? Open your child’s music book. Point to a curve. Your child checks the two end notes and names it.

Count the tie. Clap a rhythm with a tie in it. Clap the first note, and move the hands apart for the second without clapping.

Smooth and bumpy. Play five notes joined, and then the same five notes with gaps. Ask which one has the slur.

One bow, one breath. Sing five notes on one “la.” Then sing five “las.” The first way is the slur.

Print and play

For more marks, read musical symbols and their meanings. For the lengths of notes, read note values explained and print the note values chart. For string players, read string playing words.