The more you get yourself acquainted with music notation, the more you observe different musical symbols and marks used in written sheet music. Of course, music notation is loaded with musical symbols and marks for the sake of guiding musicians to standard musical interpretation.
The tie is just of these musical symbols and marks used across the sheet music to denote sound. In particular, tied notes are connected together with a symbol called tie in sheet music.
In this particular post, we will look into what constitutes tie in written music. Also, we will explore the different ways that the tie can be written in music notation and its functions.
A tie is a symbol in the form of a horizontal curve line used in sheet music notation to elongate the time value of a note. Tie accomplishes this by connecting a note to the other note that follows it. And when the tie is used to connect two notes together, the notes become one. This is just a process for a musical note to last longer than its actual value.
Again, a tie is used to connect or link two notes together to increase the beat and time value of the note. However, the notes that are to be connected together must be on the same pitch. The implication of connecting these two or more notes together with a tie is on the time values of every note involved.
Because the time value of the tied notes equals the total time value of every note involved in the tying. Generally, a tie is a versatile musical notation rhythmic tool that can be used to achieve different beat values in sheet music notation.
In particular, the tie can be used on notes with the same time value or notes with different time values. Whichever way you use it; the most important thing is the pitch of the notes. Certainly, the notes must be on the same pitch to have what we called “tied notes” in music notation.
This means you could use a tie to connect a crotchet note for instance to a quaver note provided they are on the same pitch. On the other hand, a tie can be used to connect one minim note and one semiquaver note together as far as they are both on the same pitch as well.
Besides, multiple notes can be tied together for more time/beat value on a note. To properly connect multiple notes together with the tie, the note must be connected in succession. With this in mind, a separate tie is used from one note to the other in turn to connect all the notes.
Specifically, ties are used to connect two adjacent notes together in the sequence of one-on-one for multiple notes. For instance, let assume we want to tie three music notes together on a staff. That means the first and second notes will be tied and connected together first.
Then the second note which has been already connected to the first note will be tied to the third note. The typical example of this is shown in the example of tied double notes 7th and 8th bar below.
The section will focus on the guideline and rules involved to properly write a tie mark in sheet music notation. Though most of the music software available will automatically write a tie properly for you, knowing how to write it manually and correctly is also a valuable asset.
And this can only be achieved by knowing what you need to do and what not to do. Specifically, there are rules that applied to the way a tie should be writing in musical notation as discussed below.
Fundamentally, a tie mark should be used to connect two notes of the same pitch from the first note-head to the succeeding note-head.
The curve line as a symbol used for the tie should be placed very close to the note but should not touch the note-head. And basically, the tie should be in the opposite direction to the stem of the notes.
But with a group of two or more notes, ties marks are placed on the notes in oval-like formation. The typical example is shown in the diagram above.
In detail, for tied-double notes, one tie is at the top of the note-head for the topmost note. In like manner, the second tie is at the bottom on the note-head of the inner notes. The same rule applied to both tied three-note and four-note chords respectively but with a twist in the middle tie.
You can see an example of tied double notes encircle in the diagram above. And as you can see, all the notes connected with tie marks are in the same pitch (staff line). Also, they stay close to each other side by side.
For tied three-note chords, the middle tie notation can either be up or down as shown in the diagram above. Similarly, to write tied four-note chords properly, the top-most notes of the group will have the tie curve mark on the top of the note-head.
Likewise, the bottom-most notes of the group will have the tie mark at the bottom side of the note-head. However, the middle notes can either have a tie mark on the top or bottom of the note-head. Besides, notes that are very close to each other often have their tie mark in the same orientation.
Contrarily, notes that are wide apart have their tie mark in the opposite direction. The typical example is shown in the diagram above.
Lastly, in some cases, there may be a need to write ties across one or more measures (bar). For this purpose, those notes should be marked with tie notation in turn with one after the other in pairs.
Basically, one tie is used for two notes at a time and not used on several notes as we have in slur notation. Specifically, no note should come in between the pair of notes the tie connected together. Also, ties should be used to connect two adjacent notes that stay side by side with each other.
Therefore, to tie several notes together, either within or across the measure, each note should be tied to the next note with a separate tie curve line symbol.
Typically, tied notes in written music are not expected to sound separate. Rather, they should sound evenly connected from the first note through the length of succeeding notes without a break.
So, when the tied notes are played, the first note is heard as one long note with a length that equals the duration of all the tied notes. Thus, the note value of the front note is increased by the note value of the succeeding notes that were tied to it.
For instance, two quarter-notes that are tied together are equivalent to the half note. That means if two crotchet notes with one beat each were tied together, we will have a note equivalent to one minim with two beats count. So, the minim sound will be played instead of playing two crotchet beats separately.
Thus, when you see tie connected-notes, just sum up the time value of each note involved in the tied together. And make the total sum equal to the time value of one-note especially the first note of the tie.
Consequently, the notes should be performed as one-note with a duration that is equal to the total sum of the time value of the tied notes.
Tie functions in musical notation as a means of written particular rhythms with peculiar beats value. Basically, the rhythm of a musical piece points out how long every music note or pause between music notes should last.
Usually, duplets, triplets, and dotted notes are several ways employed in written rhythms. But some rhythms can only be written with a tie. Especially those notes with an unusual time value in the rhythms.
For instance, if you need a music note with a beat value of two and a quarter (i.e. 2 beats and ¼ beat). This situation will be impossible with regular notes and will be difficult with dotted notes as well.
However, the employment of a tie will make it possible. In such cases, you would tie a minim with 2 beats value and semiquaver with ¼ beat value together. This will add up to give you a note with a beat value of two and a quarter. Obviously, you get what you wanted with this result.
Moreover, the tie is very useful when the rhythm has a note with a beat value that spans across measures. This function is specifically to accomplish the time signature and rhythm rule while maintaining the actual rhythm of the music.
Note that time signature is used to guides the number of beats in a measure. We could only achieve a beat of a note to extend to the next measure by using ties. This is because dotted notes, triplets, slur, and any other musical symbols or marks could not make it possible.
Without using a tie, there is actually no chance for a single note to traverse two measures in sheet music notation. In fact, this aspect is the major function of a tie in written music or staff notation.
In this particular situation, if there is an accidental on the first note that ties across a measure (or bar line), the accidental will continue on the note tied in the succeeding measure.
Therefore, you can also use a tie to carry accidentals that ought to have expired in a measure to the next measure.
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