Notation
Slur (music)
A slur is a symbol in Western musical notation indicating that the notes it embraces are to be played without separation (that is, with legato articulation). A slur is denoted with a curved line
Performance#
Slurs mean different things for different instruments: *For bowed string instruments, the notes should be played in one bow stroke. * For plucked string instruments, such as guitars, the notes should be played without plucking the individual strings (hammer-ons and pull-offs). * For wind instruments, the notes should be played without re-articulating each note (tonguing), except for the slide trombone (and other instruments that control the pitch with a slide), on which only certain kinds of combinations can be played with no tongue without making a glissandothus “legato tonguing” is employed. * For vocal music, slurs are usually used to mark notes which are sung to a single syllable (melisma). A slur can be extended over many notes, sometimes encompassing several bars. In extreme cases, composers are known to write slurs which are near-impossible to achieve; in that case the composer wishes to emphasise that the notes should be performed with as much legato as possible.
See also#
- Tie (music)a similar symbol which combines adjacent notes of the same pitch into a single longer note
- Musical phrasing