Slur (music) explained

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 generally placed over the notes if the stems point downward, and under them if the stems point upwards.

The example below shows two measures in with a slur for each measure:

\relative c

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 glissando – thus "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 but for connecting lengths of notes together
• Musical phrasing