Slur
A slur is a curved line over a group of notes at different pitches, meaning play them smoothly and connected as one phrase.
It looks like a tie but does a different job: a tie joins two of the same pitch into one longer note, a slur joins different pitches into one phrase. The last note under a slur is usually shortened slightly, which is how phrasing gets its shape.
How To Spot Slur
A curve spanning several notes at different heights on the staff.
Find It In Thirty Seconds
Find a slur and play the group in one breath — imagine singing it. Then play the same notes detached and hear how much the curve was doing.
Open any piece of sheet music on this site and do it now. Reading is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by finding things, not by reading about them.
Related Topics...
How to Read Sheet Music: Learn how to read sheet music using interactive lessons from Chordzy. Or browse our various reading music topics.
Music Notation Glossary: Every symbol on a page of piano music, explained in one sentence each — clefs, note values, rests, accidentals, dynamics and repeat marks.
Legato: Legato means play smoothly and connected, with each note lasting until the next one begins.
Staccato: A staccato dot above or below a note head means play it short and detached — roughly half its written length, with silence filling the rest.
Tie: A tie is a curved line joining two notes of the same pitch. You play the first one and hold it through the second, rather than playing it again.
More in This Section
Staff: The staff is the set of five horizontal lines that piano music is written on. A note's vertical position on those lines and the spaces between them tells you w…