LESSON FOUR
The Note F
The note F is written in the first space of the staff.
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10 |
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This tune features the note F. It also contains dotted half notes and is in * time.
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11 | The Slur |
A slur is a curved line above or below two or more different notes. It tells you to play the notes smoothly. Playing smoothly is 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. Tongue only the first note.
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12 |
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Remember to tongue only the first note of each group of notes connected by the slur.
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13 | Staccato |
A dot above or below a note tells you to play the note staccato. Staccato means to play a note 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.
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14 |
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This example contains both staccato and slur marks. The slur in bar 4 connects two notes rather than a group of notes.
The Note B Flat ( Bb)
This is a flat sign.
When a flat sign is placed in front of a note, it lowers the pitch of the note by an interval known as one semitone or one half step. Thus 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.
A flat sign is always placed before the note.
Consult the
index of fingerings towards the end of Lesson 14 for alternative methods of
playing Bb.
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15 |
The flat sign affects all B notes within the bar in which it appears. For example, 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 new Bb note in the following bar.
Key Signatures
Instead of writing a flat sign before every Bb note, it is easier to write just one flat sign after the treble clef. This means that all B notes on the staff are played as Bb even though there is no flat sign placed before the note. This is called a key signature. See Lesson 9 for more information on key signatures.
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16 | Austrian Waltz |
Play all B notes as Bb as indicated by the key signature. Notice that there are no breath marks in this example. Since there are plenty of rests, you can take a breath any time you see a rest. Breathing where rests occur is a good general principle in all wind instrument playing.
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17 |
Sometimes it takes only two or three notes to create a good flute part for a song. In a song like this, where and how the notes are played is the most important thing.
