User manual

General placement conventions for slurs
The placement of slurs relative to the staff, and therefore their curvature direction, depends on
the stem direction of the notes within the slur. Depending on whether slurs are placed on the
notehead or stem side of notes, their endpoint positions are different.
Slur direction
A slur on a single staff always curves upwards and is placed above the notes, unless all of the
notes under the slur are up-stem, in which case it curves downwards and is placed below the
notes. If a slur applies to a mixture of up-stem and down-stem notes, it is placed above the staff
and curves upwards.
Examples of the slur direction changing according to the stem direction
You can set your preference for whether slurs follow the stem direction, or always appear above
notes, on the Slurs page in Engrave > Engraving Options.
NOTE
In jazz scores, slurs are sometimes treated as an articulation and so positioning all slurs above
the staff is preferred.
Stem-side slurs between unbeamed notes
In Dorico Elements, slurs appear between the stems of unbeamed notes when placed on their
stem side, and the default setting is for them to attach a short distance from the end of the stem.
You can change where slurs attach to stems by adjusting Vertical offset from end of stem in
the Endpoint Positioning section of the Slurs page in Engrave > Engraving Options.
RELATED LINKS
Slur endpoint position relative to other items on page 643
Slur position relative to tie chains
There are different conventions for the position of slurs relative to tie chains in music for modern
use and historical editions.
Modern practice is for slurs to start on the rst note in tie chains, and end on the last note in tie
chains. This makes the full length of the phrase visually clear to the performer, which helps their
performance.
Slur ending on the last note in a tie chain
Slur starting from the rst note in a tie chain
Slurs
General placement conventions for slurs
640