Brush directions

Here’s how to notate brush directions in tablature using the Soundslice editor.

A brush direction basically means “quickly strum the strings in a certain direction.” It’s notated with an up or down arrow in the tablature.

Adding a brush direction

1. Select a note that has at least one other note played in the same voice at the same time.
2. In the editor’s top panel, open the “Tab” section and click either the “Toggle brush upward” or “Toggle brush downward” icon. Or search the editor for “brush” and click the appropriate result.

Removing a brush direction

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

How brush directions affect playback

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

Wait, “brush up” means you brush *downward* on the instrument?

Yeah, the “up” in “brush up” means it’s going up in pitch — not necessarily up in your hand movement.

Brush directions vs. strum directions

We also support strum 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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