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Ties

A tie connects two adjacent note heads of the same pitch. The tie in effect extends the duration of a note.

Ties that connect notes to nothing are called laissez vibrer articulation; see Laissez vibrer for the \laissezVibrer command. Ties that connect nothing to notes (as needed in seconda volta sections, for example), can be entered with the \repeatTie command; see Repeat tie.

A tie is entered by appending a tilde symbol (~) to the first of each pair of notes being tied. This indicates that the note should be tied to the following note, which must be at the same pitch.

{ a'2~ 4~ 16 r r8 }

Ties can make use of the ‘last explicit pitch’ interpretation of isolated durations:

{ a'2~ 4~ 16 r r8 }

Ties are used either when the note crosses a bar line, or when dots cannot be used to denote the rhythm. Ties should also be used when note values cross larger subdivisions of the measure:

\relative {
  r8 c'4.~ 4 r4 |
  r8^"not" c2~ 8 r4
}

If you need to tie many notes across bar lines, it may be easier to use automatic note splitting, see Automatic note splitting. This mechanism automatically splits long notes, and ties them across bar lines.

When a tie is applied to a chord, all note heads whose pitches match are connected. When no note heads match, no ties will be created. Chords may be partially tied by placing the ties inside the chord.

\relative c' {
  <c e g>2~ 2 |
  <c e g>4~ <c e g c>
    <c~ e g~ b> <c e g b> |
}

When a tie continues into alternative endings, you have to specify the repeated tie as follows:

\relative {
  \repeat volta 2 { c'' g <c e>2~ }
  \alternative {
    % the following note is tied normally
    \volta 1 { <c e>2. r4 }
    % the following note has a repeated tie
    \volta 2 { <c e>2\repeatTie d4 c }
  }
}

L.v. ties (laissez vibrer) indicate that notes must not be damped at the end. It is used in notation for piano, harp and other string and percussion instruments. They can be entered as follows:

<c' f' g'>1\laissezVibrer

Ties may be made to curve up or down manually; see Direction and placement.

Ties may be made dashed, dotted, or a combination of solid and dashed.

\relative c' {
  \tieDotted
  c2~ 2
  \tieDashed
  c2~ 2
  \tieHalfDashed
  c2~ 2
  \tieHalfSolid
  c2~ 2
  \tieSolid
  c2~ 2
}

Custom dash patterns can be specified:

\relative c' {
  \tieDashPattern 0.3 0.75
  c2~ 2
  \tieDashPattern 0.7 1.5
  c2~ 2
  \tieSolid
  c2~ 2
}

Dash pattern definitions for ties have the same structure as dash pattern definitions for slurs. For more information about complex dash patterns, see Slurs.

Override whiteout and layer layout properties of objects that should cause a gap in ties.

\relative {
  \override Tie.layer = -2
  \override Staff.TimeSignature.layer = -1
  \override Staff.KeySignature.layer = -1
  \override Staff.TimeSignature.whiteout = ##t
  \override Staff.KeySignature.whiteout = ##t
  b'2 b~
  \time 3/4
  \key a \major
  b r4
}

Predefined commands

\tieUp, \tieDown, \tieNeutral, \tieDotted, \tieDashed, \tieDashPattern, \tieHalfDashed, \tieHalfSolid, \tieSolid.

Selected Snippets

Using ties with arpeggios

Ties are sometimes used to write out arpeggios. In this case, two tied notes need not be consecutive. This can be achieved by setting the tieWaitForNote property to #t. The same feature is also useful, for example, to tie a tremolo to a chord, but in principle, it can also be used for ordinary consecutive notes.

\relative c' {
  \set tieWaitForNote = ##t
  \grace { c16[ ~ e ~ g] ~ } <c, e g>2
  \repeat tremolo 8 { c32 ~ c' ~ } <c c,>1
  e8 ~ c ~ a ~ f ~ <e' c a f>2
  \tieUp
  c8 ~ a
  \tieDown
  \tieDotted
  g8 ~ c g2
}

Engraving ties manually

A single tie may be engraved manually by changing the staff-position property (an offset) of the Tie grob; if there are multiple ties at the same musical moment, they can be adjusted manually by changing the tie-configuration property (a list of offset/direction pairs) of the TieColumn object.

The offset indicates the distance from the center of the staff in half staff spaces, the direction can be either 1 (up) or -1 (down).

Note that LilyPond makes a distinction between exact and inexact values for the offset. If using an exact value (i.e., either an integer or a fraction like (/ 4 5)), the value serves as a rough vertical position that gets further tuned by LilyPond to make the tie avoid staff lines. If using an inexact value like a floating point number, it is taken as the precise vertical position without further adjustments.

\relative c' {
  <>^"default"
  g'1 ^~ g

  <>^"0"
  \once \override Tie.staff-position = 0
  g1 ^~ g

  <>^"0.0"
  \once \override Tie.staff-position = 0.0
  g1 ^~ g

  <>^"reset"
  \revert Tie.staff-position
  g1 ^~ g
}

\relative c' {
  \override TextScript.outside-staff-priority = ##f
  \override TextScript.padding = 0

  <>^"default"
  <c e g>1~ <c e g>

  <>^"0, -2, -4"
  \override TieColumn.tie-configuration =
    #'((0 . 1) (-2 . 1) (-4 . 1))
  <c e g>1~ <c e g>

  <>^"0.0, -2.0, -4.0"
  \override TieColumn.tie-configuration =
    #'((0.0 . 1) (-2.0 . 1) (-4.0 . 1))
  <c e g>1~ <c e g>

  <>^"reset"
  \override TieColumn.tie-configuration = ##f
  <c e g>1~ <c e g>
}

\paper { tagline = ##f }

See also

Music Glossary: tie, laissez vibrer.

Notation Reference: Slurs, Automatic note splitting.

Snippets: Expressive marks, Rhythms.

Internals Reference: LaissezVibrerTie, LaissezVibrerTieColumn, TieColumn, Tie.

Known issues and warnings

Switching staves when a tie is active will not produce a slanted tie.

Changing clefs or ottavations during a tie is not really well-defined. In these cases, a slur may be preferable.

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LilyPond Notation Reference v2.25.14 (development-branch).