Why are notes tied?

Coincidentally, I asked my wife that a few days ago - who reads music quite well... and she really didn't have a good answer.

So, I looked it up on Wikipedia...

They say: either because it crosses a bar as you said, or "The second note begins a metric grouping, falling on a stressed beat of the meter. This change in notation (choosing the tie rather than the longer note value) does not affect performance, but it makes the music easier to read."

So, yeah... if it follows the beat, makes sense...

Re: "Metric grouping"... here is the (long) article on Meter's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(music)

Yeah and also if for example u want a note to last for 2 and a half beats, I really duno anyway to do that other than tie a half note and an eight note.

Coincidentally, I asked my wife that a few days ago - who reads music quite well... and she really didn't have a good answer.

So, I looked it up on Wikipedia...

They say: either because it crosses a bar as you said, or "The second note begins a metric grouping, falling on a stressed beat of the meter. This change in notation (choosing the tie rather than the longer note value) does not affect performance, but it makes the music easier to read."
)

I'd also consider doing it (theoretically, I've not had cause to do this yet, tho I haven't had to transcribe a vast amount of weird music yet) if e.g. the entire melody was in crotchets (quarter notes) and I wanted a minim in the middle (half note) - this is a ludicrously simple example, but if the piece was long and I didn't want to surprise the performer with a new note value, I might be inclined to use two crotchets tied together here (especially if it's contrapuntal music, like in the example lue42 links to, with a second line on the same stave....if the second line is full of minims, I'd consider whether putting a couple of minims in the first line would be more confusing visually than writing them as tied crotchets). But I don't know if there's any 'rule' or practice in favour of doing this.

Thanks for the replys, I went back to look at the music I was talking about and had a "doh" moment.

What everyone has said makes sense, and I knew what everyone was saying before hand, but I was looking at two eighth notes or multiple in one line all being tied with other eighth notes in the same bar, no different values.

BUT when I go back and look....there is a single quarter note buried in there that blends in with the eighth notes, and the copy was kind of bad....but I get what they were doing.

Thanks for the link to the wiki! I read the article and it was an interesting read on the different styles from dance to regular songs, etc.

At one time that wasn't the rule.

When I was in school and in the "stage band" (after school swing band) the band director told me that since Jazz charts can be rhythmically complex, there was an unwritten rule that never put a quarter note in that position, but instead two eighth notes tied so that the reader would instinctively know where the third beat of the measure was.

Don't know if he had his origins right, but it does help the music reader.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Okay, I know that a tied note can be used when separating bars in certain time signatures etc, but in the middle of a bar, why tie two eight notes, for example? Wouldn't it be easier to just put down a quarter note?

I see it all the time, so I know there has to be a reason for it musically. I just don't really see it, or hear it.

In basic terms, the notes are tied because they sustain and ring through the value of itself, and through the value of the tied note.

So if I had a quarter note at the end of one bar, and a tie to the first 8th note of the second bar that would mean that I sustain
sustain
Play ---> 4---|----1 and <--- Play there

So I play on the 4 and ring/sustain it until the "and" of the 1 on the next bar.

Best,

Sean