Tie

A tie is a curved line that connects two or more notes of the same pitch. You play the first note and hold it through the length of the second, without playing the second note again. The written values add up: in 4/4, a half note tied to a quarter note lasts three beats.

▶Across the bar line0:06▶Inside the bar0:04

Why ties are needed

• Across a bar line. A note cannot stretch past a bar line on its own, so a sound that continues into the next bar is written as two notes joined by a tie.
• For lengths with no single symbol. A sound lasting five eighth notes has no note value of its own, so it is written as, for example, a half note tied to an eighth note.
• To show the beat. Even inside a bar, a long note that starts off the beat is often split with a tie, so the middle of the bar stays visible. Many syncopated rhythms are written this way.

How to recognize a tie

A tie connects noteheads, not stems, and usually curves away from the stems. Its notes normally sit on the same line or space, but a clef change can move the same pitch to a different staff position. The essential feature is one sustained pitch across successive written notes, not matching staff positions alone. A slur groups notes that are still played separately. In a chord, each tied note gets its own tie.

A tie also carries an accidental across a bar line: if an F♯ is tied into the next bar, the tied note is still F♯, with no new sign.

Counting tied notes

Count through the tie rather than stopping at it. Say the beats aloud while you hold the note, and play the next note exactly when its beat arrives. Writing the counts under the notes, as in Write the counts 3: triplets & ties, is good practice. To tell ties from slurs at a glance, try Ties vs Slurs.