Slurs
A slur is a curved line above or below two or more different notes. It indicates that the notes must be played smoothly (called legato). To play legato, only tongue the first note of the group and keep blowing while you change your finger positions for the other notes.
Remember to tongue only the first note of each group of notes connected by the slur.
Staccato
A dot above or below a note indicates that the note is to be played staccato, which means short and separate from other notes. This is the opposite of legato. To play a note staccato, make a short "t" action with your tongue, and cut off your breath as soon as you tongue the note.
This example contains both staccato and slur marks. Note that the slur in bar 4 connects two notes rather than a group of notes.
The Flat Sign
This is a flat sign.
When a flat sign is placed in front of a note, it lowers the note by an interval known as one semitone or one half step. Therefore the note Bb is one semitone lower than B. Since the difference in pitch between the notes A and B is one whole tone (two semitones or one whole step), Bb is also one semitone higher than A.
The Note B Flat
Other ways of playing Bb can be found in the index of fingerings on pages 210 to 213.
The flat sign affects all B notes within the bar in which it appears. Eg: in bars 1 and 4 the b sign appears before the first B in each bar. The flat also applies to all other B notes within that particular bar. The effect of a flat sign is cancelled by a bar line, meaning that a new flat sign is needed to indicate a newBb note in the following bar.
