4. Techniques

Slides, hammer-ons and slurs

Slides, hammer-ons and slurs all join one note to the next. A slide glides the pitch along the string; a hammer-on or pull-off sounds the next note without picking it; a slur ties a whole phrase together, played legato and written as a curve in the score.

Slides and hammer-ons go on the notes you’ve selected, or, with nothing selected, on the note at the caret; a slur needs notes selected. Right-click a note for its menu: slides and hammer-ons are in its Articulation submenu, slurs in its Slur submenu. For a slide or a hammer-on, pressing its key again, or choosing its checked item, takes it off.

Slides

Available on every platform.

Slide to the next note

Slide to Next (S) slides from the note into the next note on the same string. Mark the note the slide leaves, as Guitar Pro does. In the Editor, a / between the two notes means the slide goes up, a \ that it goes down.

The Articulation submenu has the other slides:

• Shift Slide: the same glide, but the next note is picked again.
• Slide In and Slide In from Above: into the note from below or above, drawn just before its fret.
• Slide Out and Slide Out Upwards: out of the note, down or up, drawn just after it.

A note leaves by one slide and arrives by one, so choosing another slide replaces the one it had.

How a slide sounds

A slide to the next note glides over the end of the note it leaves, at most half of it and at most an eighth note, and arrives on the next note’s pitch as that note starts. Slide to Next doesn’t pick the next note; Shift Slide does. A slide in starts five semitones away and reaches the note over its first quarter; a slide out falls (or rises) seven semitones by the note’s end. Slides play whatever the track’s sound.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs

Available on every platform.

Hammer-ons and pull-offs

Hammer-On / Pull-Off to Next (H) joins a note to the next note on its string without picking it. Mark the note you pick, the one it leaves. Whether it’s a hammer-on or a pull-off follows the pitches: the Editor writes h between the two when the next note is higher, p when it’s lower.

On a fretted track, the next note carries on the string. With a SoundFont or a sampled instrument, which can’t carry a string on, the next note plays with a softer attack instead.

In the Score, hammer-ons, pull-offs and legato slides are written as slurs from the note they leave to the next one on its string. Slur › Remove Slur takes hammer-ons and pull-offs off too.

Guitar Pro files bring their hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides in as these marks, and Guitar Pro export writes them back.

Slurs

Available on every platform.

Add a slur

Select the notes of the phrase and press Slur (⇧S)Slur (Shift+S)Slur (Shift+S (⇧S on a Mac)), in an Editor pane or in the Score. The slur runs from the first selected note to the last. With one note selected, it runs from that note to the next one. The same is in the note’s menu, Slur › Slur, and the submenu has two more kinds:

• Phrasing Slur: a longer arc over a whole phrase, drawn over the slurs it holds.
• Dashed Slur: a slur drawn in dashes.

A slur stays inside one clip: select notes across two clips and each clip gets a slur of its own. A new slur replaces one of the same kind it would cross. Drum tracks don’t take slurs.

Change or remove a slur

Select a note at either end of a slur, or under it, then use the note’s Slur submenu: Flip Slur moves it to the other side of the notes, and Remove Slur takes it off. In the Inspector, the Slur row changes the kind (None, Slur, Phrase, Dashed) and the Side row its place (Auto, Over, Under).

How slurs look and sound

The Editor shows a slur as a faint arc over its notes, higher for a phrasing slur, dashed for a dashed one, when Show Articulations is on. The Score engraves it, on the side away from the stems unless you’ve flipped it.

A slurred phrase plays legato: every note but the last holds on to the next, and the last is played a little short. On a fretted track, a note slurred into on the same string at another fret plays as a hammer-on or pull-off. A phrasing slur only shortens the last note of its phrase.

MusicXML files bring their slurs in, and MusicXML export writes them out (a phrasing slur as a plain slur).