In this lesson, we'll explore how, why, and when to use ties when writing music notation. You'll learn how to identify more complex strumming patterns and, by the end of it, you'll be able to transcribe the rhythm for many songs. Transcribing opens up new horizons for your musicianship. Training your ears is one of the most powerful things you can do. :)

Before You Start

Make sure you understand all the Rhythm Essentials we've covered in our previous lesson. I expect you to be comfortable with the rhythmic terms we've learned and understand note values and how we use them.

What are Ties in Music?

Musical ties tie notes together! In music notation, we represent a tie with a little curved line between two note heads. When notes are tied together, we play the first note for its duration plus the duration of the note that it's tied to.

Take a look at these two examples.

I hope you've noticed that both examples sound the same! You can clearly see the effect of the tie. If you look at the first bar, you'll know that it starts with a half note (worth two beats.) When you look at the second bar, we've got two quarter notes that are tied together. Usually, we would use ties to make the notation clearer and easier to read. In this case, we'd probably just use a half note, but I want you to get a clear idea of what a tie does.

You will often find there is more than one way to write any rhythm. You should choose the easiest to read and understand! You'll often want to see a note on each beat, but more on that later!

Why and How to Use Ties in Music Notation?

There are moments when you don't need to use ties - and it's enough to use different note values to represent the rhythm. But there are moments when that's not possible!

Take a look at this example, from a very popular strumming pattern:

In this strumming pattern, we don't play on beat 3. We play the up strum on the and after 2 and let it ring out until the 'and after 3'. You can see Beat 3 clearly in the first bar of the notation because of the tie, but if you try to write the same thing without a tie, shown in the second bar), it gets very confusing to the eye.

Always aim to make rhythm notation as easy as possible to understand. And that means you'll often use ties! Try wherever possible to have a note (or rest!) on each beat. It becomes more and more important as rhythm gets more complicated.

We can tie more than one note together as well, but it's not as common. We'll explore more about it as we go through this course. :)

Now, let's explore four of the most common strumming patterns with ties.

Common Strumming Patterns with Ties

The Old Faithful Strumming Pattern is one of the most popular ever! If you just knew one pattern, it should be this one. I recommend you take the time to explore it, learn how to hear it, read it, AND WRITE IT! It comes with some minor variations, but this is its basic form:

The 2 Drop is another typical strumming pattern. For this one, we miss Beat 2. It uses the same rhythmic grouping as The Old Faithful - the difference is that the missed downbeat in the middle (Beat 3) is now in the front (Beat 2.) Take a look:

In these previous examples, we only tied together eighth notes, but you can also tie together quarter notes. It's the case for the Long 1 Strumming Pattern - yep, I make up names for the strumming patterns!

The Long 1 is more laid back, and it's got Beat 1 tied together onto an eighth note on Beat 2. So, we hold the first strum for one and a half beats! Here it is:

The last example is the one I call The Proud Coffee strumming pattern. It's the one from Proud Mary, and also Coffee & TV. In this one, we don't play on beats 2 and 4. There's the option of muting on 2 and 4, but we'll explore this later on. Here's The Proud Coffee pattern:

Ties Over a Bar of Music!

Ties over a bar line are very common. It means that one tie goes from the last note of one bar into the first note in another. An easy example is when you have a chord that you want to hold during two whole bars. You'll write one whole note in one bar, a whole note in the following bar and tie them together! The chord will then ring out for the duration of two bars. It looks like this:

Ties over a bar of music are often used for what I call the rhythm push - meaning that the chord changes just one eighth before the bar. More about this below! Now, let's look at two examples of common strumming patterns that use this idea of ties over bars.

The first example is the Common Push - I call it this way because it seems it's the most common strumming pattern when you're pushing chords. Here's how it looks like:

Be aware that when you're transcribing music, you need to concentrate on the rhythm first. Then, the chords.

Slow Bo is the second example of this kind of strumming pattern. It's a 16th note, so we'll explore it more later on this course. For now, I just want you to get the idea of this kind of Bo Diddley rhythm - played in groups of 3!

How to Practice What We've Learned

When you're listening to a song, try to remove its harmonic information and just listen to its rhythm. What you want to focus on and write down are the hit points.

If you're following my video lesson, you'll see that we start out ignoring chords and chord changes. This is to allow you to focus on the rhythm only. As you develop your musicianship, you'll be able to tune your ear into music details. But it takes practice and time!

When transcribing any rhythm, look for points that might expose what you're looking for. And don't be afraid of repeated listening - sometimes just listening over and over peels back the layers!

Clapping & Tapping

Of course, when clapping or tapping your foot, it's impossible to know or to express for how long the note is held for. Still, these are great exercises to help you build confidence and improve your sense of rhythm.

The best way of doing this is by using a Guitar Pro file and clapping along with it. Check out the Download tab on this lesson and grab yours for free - just make sure you've logged in to the website.

Recognizing the hit points

We've talked about this before! When you're listening to a rhythm and trying to transcribe it, make sure you're focusing on the rhythmic elements only. You really need to train your ears to hear only particular bits of a song!

When working out the rhythm by ear, you need to learn how to recognize the strumming’s hit points. I won’t lie - it takes time and practice to sharpen your attention and ignore all other things going on in a song, all the harmonic elements, instruments, guitar parts.

The good news is that this is a skill that you can acquire. Just take your time, don't be afraid to make mistakes (as long as you learn from them,) and stick with your practice routine.

How to Read and Write Down The Push

As I mentioned at the beginning of this lesson, there are a few strumming patterns where the chord changes just one eighth before the bar.

If you're writing down a two bar strumming pattern and the chord changes on the push (on the “and after four” before the new bar), here's what you should do!

Write the strumming pattern out, and then write the chord above the “and after four” - not at the beginning of the next bar! You'll write it where the chord changes.

There's a shorthand way of writing down a strumming pattern with the push, too: just write an eighth note with a tail and a tie going over the bar line - not even tying onto anything! Here's how:

If you're playing in a band or writing loads of strumming patterns, this shorthand will save you loads of time - and you won't forget where the pushes are!

Transcribe Tools & Extra Tips

If you find trying to transcribe a song, but you feel it's going too fast, you can use tools to slow it down and get a better listen to it. I use the Transcribe! Software - I really recommend it (but there are free alternatives, like Audacity!)

Don't go too slow - but definitely explore slowing down a bit. Some software also allows you to select a part of a song and work in sections. That's great, and I highly recommend you do it. You’ll choose one or two bars of a song and transcribe it before moving on to the next section.

What about Variations?

Be aware that rhythmic variations are normal. :) Listen out for them; they're very common and nothing to be scared of. A song rarely uses the same strumming pattern for the whole tune!

You'll often encounter fill patterns - meaning that you would put your fill where a drummer might put on a 'fill' - every 4, 8, 12, or 16 bars of a song. The slight change of strumming pattern helps you (and the listener) feel the song’s structure.

There are many different reasons why strumming patterns will change through a song. Another pretty typical example is when the number of chords in a bar change.

What I suggest is that you find the “general” feel and generalized strumming pattern of a song - from there, you'll be able to work out minor variations as needed. Sometimes, you'll never know if your strumming pattern is 100% right - but it doesn’t matter!

Real-World Examples

Working out real songs is one of the best practices ever! Here are a few tunes that I suggest you try out, by order of difficulty. You'll learn something new from each one of them! Watch the video for some tips on each song and what to look out for!

Man On The Moon - REM
Half The World Away - Oasis
What’s Up - 4 Non Blondes
A Girl Like You - Edwin Collins
Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men

For now, you don't need to worry about the chords or the pushes. Focus on the strumming pattern and the rhythm.

Train your ears - you'll be amazed how much you'll improve if you stick with it. Focusing on individual elements of a song is an excellent exercise for your musicianship. Transcribing changes how you listen to music, and it opens up a world of possibilities.

Have fun!