Changing the Shape and Extent of a Slur

<< Click to Display Table of Contents >>

Navigation:  Editing the Music Notation > Editing Music Annotations > Slurs (Phrase Marks) >

Changing the Shape and Extent of a Slur

Previous pageReturn to chapter overviewNext page

Musician offers several options for adjusting the extent and shape of a slur. For the finest control over the extent and shape of the slur's curve, you can drag its four handles with the mouse. For most adjustments, however, you can use one-click or one-letter shortcut commands to do the following:

B816Move the slur from above the note(s) to below the note(s), or the vice versa.
B816Automatically refit the slur to the contour of notes beneath or above it.
B816Move the entire slur up, down, right or left.
B816Increase or decrease the amount of bow in the slur mark.
B816Move the start or end of the curve to another measure, even on a separate system or page.
B816Adjust the position of a slur that spans across multiple systems.

 
prcarrow To finely adjust the position and shape of the slur's curve:

1.Select the slur by clicking on it.

Musician will highlight the selected slur in the color blue, and will display four red handles that you can drag with the mouse to adjust the position and shape of the slur.

SlurHandles

2.Drag any of the four handles of the slur's curve to change its starting and ending points and shape. When you drag the starting or ending point of the slur, the adjacent "control" handle, which determines the shape of the curve at the start or end, will move along with the starting or ending point. Release the mouse button when you are done with a particular handle.

The following chart shows some examples of different curve shapes that you can make by arranging the handles in different relative positions. You can even draw a curve that turns up, then down, and then back up.

SlurShapes

prcarrow To move the slur from above the note(s) to below the note(s), or vice versa:

1.Select the slur.
2.Click the Fit Slur Above Notes changing_the_shape_and_e button or Fit Slur Below Notes changing_the_shape_and_e1 button.

-- OR --

Type "a" for above notes, or "b" for below notes.

Musician will adjust the start and end positions of the slur so that they start at appropriate locations relative to the notes at the start and end of the slur. Also, Musician will adjust the arc of the slur so that it clears all of the notes without crossing through any noteheads or stems.

prcarrow To automatically refit the slur to the contour of notes beneath or above it.

B816Follow exactly the same procedure as the one above. For example, if you have added a note in the middle of a slur, such that the slur now crosses through the note or its stem, you can select the slur and click the changing_the_shape_and_e2 or changing_the_shape_and_e3 button to refit the slur to the new contour of notes, as illustrated here:

SlurReFit

Note that if you do anything to a note at the start or end of a slur, Musician will automatically refit the curve to accommodate the change. Only if you change the notes in the middle of the slur might it be necessary for you to follow the above refit procedure.

If you transpose the pitches of notes, so that they are raised or lowered on the staff, Musician will also automatically recalculate the position of slurs over or under those notes.

prcarrow To move the entire slur up, down, right or left:

1.Select the slur.
2.Click the changing_the_shape_and_e4, changing_the_shape_and_e5, changing_the_shape_and_e6, or changing_the_shape_and_e7 button one or more times.

-- OR --

Hit the Up, Down, Left or RightArrowKey key one or more times.

prcarrow To increase the bowing of the slur's curve in an outward direction, or decrease the bowing of the curve in an inward direction:

1.Select the slur.
2.Click the Bow Curve Out changing_the_shape_and_e8 button or Bow Curve In changing_the_shape_and_e9 button one or more times.

-- OR --

Type "o" or "i" for bow out or bow in one or more times.

SlurBowOut
 

prcarrow To move the start or end of the curve to another measure, even on a separate system or page:

1.Select the slur.
2.Click one of the following buttons, or type one of the keyboard shortcuts:
B816Click the changing_the_shape_and_e10 button, or type SLeftArrowKey, to move the start of the slur one measure to the left.
B816Click the changing_the_shape_and_e11 button, or type S+RightArrowKey, to move the start of the slur one measure to the right.
B816Click the changing_the_shape_and_e12 button, or type E+RightArrowKey, to move the end of the slur one measure to the right.
B816Click the changing_the_shape_and_e13 button, or type E+LeftArrowKey, to move the end of the slur one measure to the left.
 

prcarrow  To adjust the position of a slur that spans across multiple systems:

1.Adjust the handles at the start of the slur, on the first system, to influence the position of the slur across not only that system but also the next system(s).
2.Adjust the handles at the end of the slur, on the last system, to influence the position of the slur across not only that system but also the previous system(s).

SlurAcrossTwoSystems