Legato slur

One sign, two meanings

In the score a tie and a legato slur look the same: a curved line between notes. What counts is what it joins. The tie joins two notes of the same pitch. They sound as one note whose duration is the sum of the two note values; the second note is not struck anew. The legato slur joins notes of different pitch. All notes are played, but joined without a gap.

How to recognise it

The tie usually sits flatter and closer to the notehead, while the legato slur may be arched higher and span several notes. Both usually sit on the side of the heads opposite the stem when only one voice is notated. The safe rule remains the question of pitch: two equal notes joined by a curve are a single long note.

Legato slur and phrase slur

The phrase slur too looks like a legato slur. But it usually embraces a whole phrase and does not necessarily ask for all notes to be joined. Which meaning a slur has therefore often emerges from the context: from its length, from the phrasing and from the signs under it. The page of its own on the phrase slur shows the difference in an example.

Common mistakes

• Re-striking a tie: With equal notes only the first is played.
• Joining all notes under a long slur: Check whether it means a phrase or really legato.
• Playing both kinds of slur alike: The tie makes one note of two, the legato slur joins separate notes.