Ties and grouping

Ties

A tie is a curved line joining two notes of the same pitch. You play the first note and hold it through the second, without playing again: one sound as long as both notes added together.

Ties are useful when a sound has to carry across a barline.

Tip: a curved line joining two different notes is not a tie: that is a slur, which means play smoothly. A tie always joins the same note to itself.

Beams show the beats

Quavers and semiquavers can be joined by beams instead of tails. Beams group the notes a beat at a time, so a player can see where each beat starts.

• Two quavers make one crotchet beat, so they are beamed in pairs.
• Four semiquavers make one beat, so they are beamed in fours.
• In 4/4, four quavers can share a beam over beats 1 and 2, or beats 3 and 4, but never across the middle of the bar.

A mistake to spot

In 3/4, six quavers beamed in threes look like two big beats, not three. Each crotchet beat should be its own group.