Strum directions

Here’s how to notate strum directions using the Soundslice editor. These are up/down arrows that communicate whether to strum upward or downward.

Adding a strum direction

1. Select a note.
2. In the editor’s top panel, open the “Performance” section and click either the “Toggle strum upward” or “Toggle strum downward” icon. Or search the editor for “strum” and click the appropriate result.

Removing a strum direction

1. Select one of the notes that has the strum direction. (It doesn’t matter if you select it within the tablature staff or the standard-notation staff.)
2. You’ll see the strum icon ( or )in the current notations section. Click that icon to remove the strum direction.

Placement of strum directions

If your instrument is showing both tablature and standard notation, the strum directions will be displayed in between (as in the image above).

If your instrument doesn’t have tab, or you’ve hidden tab (via the Appearance section), the strum directions will appear above the staff:

If your instrument has tab, but you’ve hidden the standard notation (via the Appearance section), the strum directions will appear above the tab:

How strum directions affect playback

Strum directions don’t affect synthetic playback at this time.

Strum directions vs. brush directions

We also support brush directions. Brush directions are only available for tablature and are displayed directly within the tab staff. Strum directions are available for any instrument and are displayed in a dedicated “row” separate from the staff.

In general, these are very similar, and sometimes either notation might be equally fine for a given musical situation. If pressed for advice, we would say this:

• Use strum directions to communicate a general strumming pattern.
• Use brush directions to communicate an “out of the ordinary” situation, or a situation in which you want to explicitly point out that a chord should be strummed in a particular direction.

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