Ties and slurs · From Zero to Mozart

A curved line joins two or more notes. It's either a tie or a slur, and you tell them apart by what it joins.

Tie — same pitch, held as one

A tie connects two noteheads at the exact same pitch. You don't play the second one — you hold the first straight through it, as a single longer sound.

66 bpm

Three noteheads, but only two bow starts. The second D is tied across the barline into the third, so it rings straight on as one four-beat sound. Then a two-beat rest.

A tie is how you write a length that no single notehead can show — a five-beat note is a whole note tied to a quarter — or a note that has to carry over a barline.

66 bpm

A whole note tied to a quarter — one sound five beats long, struck once and held all the way to the '2' of the next bar. Then a rest for the last three beats.

Slur — different pitches, one bow

A slur curves over notes at different pitches. It's a phrasing mark, and on the violin it almost always means: play the whole group in one bow, without re-starting the sound for each note. The left-hand fingers still change; the bow just keeps travelling.

66 bpm

One curved line over four moving notes — one bow carries all four. The notes still sound separately; the bow simply doesn't stop or change direction.

The quick test

60 bpm

Three curves here. Which are ties, which are slurs? Check what each one joins — same pitch or moving — then reveal. (D–E: slur. F–F across the bar: tie. G–A: slur.)

Does the curve join two noteheads at the same height on the staff? Tie — hold it. Does it arc over notes that move up or down? Slur — one bow. A curve across a barline joining identical pitches is almost always a tie.

The usual mistake

Re-bowing or re-plucking across a tie — you get two attacks where the music wants one long note. Or reading a slur as a tie and sitting on one pitch while the tune was meant to move.