Ties

Music Glossary: tie.

A tie is created by appending a tilde ‘~’ to the first of the two notes being tied.

\relative { g'4~ g c2~ | c4~ c8 a~ a2 | }

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When the pitch does not change, as is always the case with tied notes, subsequent pitches may be omitted, specifying just the bare duration:

\relative { g'4~ 4 c2~ | 4~ 8 a~ 2 | }

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This shorthand may be useful in other places where the rhythm changes with an unchanging pitch, but remember that a bare pitch followed by a space and a bare duration will be interpreted as a single note. In other words, ‘c4 a 8 8’ would be interpreted as ‘c4 a8 a8’, not as ‘c4 a4 a8 a8’. Write ‘c4 a4 8 8’ instead.


LilyPond Learning Manual v2.25.15 (development-branch).