A tie is a curved line written above or below two or more notes with the same position on the staff. It tells you to tongue the first note only, and to sustain it for the value of both notes. A tie may occur either across a bar line, or within one bar. The following example contains several ties.
This symbol is the common time signature.
Common time is the same as * time.
This example is what is known as a 12 Bar Blues, which is a musical form that repeats every 12 bars. 12 Bar Blues is discussed in detail in Lesson 19 .