November 4, 2011 5:04:06 PM EDT
How To Play The Saxophone Slurring
Learning how to play the saxophone involves many different techniques. Slurring, apart from being something you do when you've had one too many, is also a way of playing notes on the saxophone.
Is it an effect? Probably not but you do need to know about it as it will be specifically highlighted in musical notation. Although it has been given a specific term it has no major difficulty associated with it and is easy to do when you learn to play.
Slurring is simply the process where you will play one note immediately after another with no break. So, if you go up and down the scale without pausing or using your tongue then you have just slurred your way through the scale. It becomes a little more difficult if you are asked to slur from say a bottom D to a middle C. This does require some amount of practice. In musical notation slurring is symbolized by a curved line either at the top or bottom of the musical bar that joins together the notes that need to be slurred.
In the above example G, A, and B need to be slurred. Then from B to the final B needs to be tongued. This would give you GAB-B.
There is nothing to say you can't slur all the notes you play. However, this is not how the composer wanted the music to be played. Plus, if you join a band you will be expected to play the music as it is written.
When learning how to play saxophone learning when to slur and when to tongue is important. Especially when you would have to play the same note 3 or 4 times. Slur it and it would be pretty much just one long note. Tongue it and it's 3 or 4 seperate notes.
Source: saxophone-players.com
