Tip #37 - How (and why) to enter leading ties on staff lines

Often when one staff line ends with a note or chord which is supposed to be tied (slurred) to a following chord, the next line will begin with ties on the LEFT of the chord, indicated it is tied to the previous chord. In MusEdit if you enter a chord then enter ties (by hitting n or u) the ties will appear to the right of the chord, and it may not be obvious how to put these ties on the left of the chord. Well, here's how you can do it:

1) First enter the chord at the beginning of the line - this will help you place the ties correctly.

2) Put the caret immediately to the left of the chord and hit space to move it over one position.

3) Put the caret back at the beginning of the line - there should now be a space between the caret and the chord.

4) Use the Up/Down arrow keys to position the caret exactly in line with the vertical position of each of the notes in the chord to the right and hit n and u as needed (twice for double length). These ties are being attached to a "phantom" chord, but that's OK. When you enter the first tie the "target" chord will shift one more position to the right (because when you enter the first tie you are inserting a new "chord" and so everything to the right gets pushed aside one space to make room) but don't worry...

5) After you've entered all the necessary ties, hit the Right Arrow to move the caret one position to the right - ie. to the space between the ties and the target chord. Now hit "Del" to remove the space. The target chord should move left one position with the result that the ties all end on their proper note bodies.

Besides doing this to make the music look right, this also has the effect of "silencing" the chord on which the ties end during MIDI play. MusEdit cheats a bit when it comes to ties because it doesn't actually extend the duration of the first note of a tied pair - rather it silences the note upon which the tie ends, but it silences it for the correct duration to keep the music sounding correct rhythmically. This is why it's important to put these leading ties on a chord in a situation like this, otherwise the chord will sound twice during MIDI play (once at the end of the previous line, then once at the start of the new line). It's also important that you place the ties precisely if you want this silencing effect to work correctly (more on this in another tip...)

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