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.
Ties exist because a note sometimes needs to last across a bar line, where no single symbol can express it. Two tied quarter notes across a bar line are one note lasting two beats.
How to spot it
A curve joining two note heads at the same height. If the two heads are at different heights, it is a slur and means something else.
Find it in thirty seconds
Find a tie crossing a bar line, play the first note, and count through both without re-striking. Then play it wrongly on purpose and hear the difference.
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.
Bar Line: Bar Line in piano music. A bar line is the vertical line crossing the staff that divides music into measures. A double bar line marks the end of a section, and…
Dotted Note: Dotted Note in piano music. A dot after a note head adds half of that note's value again. A dotted half note lasts three beats; a dotted quarter lasts one and…
Legato: Legato in piano music. Legato means play smoothly and connected, with each note lasting until the next one begins.
Slur: Slur in piano music. A slur is a curved line over a group of notes at different pitches, meaning play them smoothly and connected as one phrase.
More in This Section
Time Signature: Time Signature in piano music. The time signature is the pair of numbers after the clef. The top number says how many beats are in each measure; the bottom say…
Treble Clef: Treble Clef in piano music. The treble clef is the curled symbol at the start of the upper staff. It fixes the second line from the bottom as G above middle C…
