GNU LilyPond Notation Reference: 2.6.1 Common notation for wind instruments

### 2.6.1 Common notation for wind instruments

This section discusses some issues common to most wind instruments.

#### References for wind instruments

Many notation issues for wind instruments pertain to breathing and tonguing:

- Breathing can be specified by rests or Breath marks.
- Legato playing is indicated by Slurs.
- Different types of tonguings, ranging from legato to non-legato to stacatto are usually shown by articulation marks, sometimes combined with slurs, see Articulations and ornamentations and List of articulations.
- Flutter tonguing is usually indicated by placing a tremolo mark and a text markup on the note. See Tremolo repeats.

There are also other aspects of musical notation that can apply to wind instruments:

- Many wind instruments are transposing intruments, see Instrument transpositions.
- The slide glissando are characteristic of the trombone, but other winds may perform keyed or valved glissandi. See Glissando.
- Harmonic series glissandi, which are possible on all brass instruments but common for French Horns, are usually written out as Grace notes.
- Pitch inflections at the end of a note are discussed in Falls and doits.
- Key slaps or valve slaps are often shown by the `cross` style of Special note heads.
- Woodwinds can overblow low notes to sound harmonics. These are shown by the `flageolet` articulation. See List of articulations.
- The use of brass mutes is usually indicated by a text markup, but where there are many rapid changes it is better to use the `stopped` and `open` articulations. See Articulations and ornamentations and List of articulations.
- Stopped horns are indicated by the `stopped` articulation. See Articulations and ornamentations.

#### Selected Snippets

Changing \flageolet mark size

To make the `\flageolet` circle smaller use the following Scheme function.

>     smallFlageolet =
>     #(let ((m (make-music 'ArticulationEvent
>                           'articulation-type "flageolet")))
>        (ly:music-set-property! m 'tweaks
>          (acons 'font-size -3
>            (ly:music-property m 'tweaks)))
>       m)

>     \layout { ragged-right = ##f }

>     \relative c'' {
>       d4^\flageolet_\markup { default size } d_\flageolet
>       c4^\smallFlageolet_\markup { smaller } c_\smallFlageolet
>     }

#### See also

Notation Reference: Breath marks, Slurs, Articulations and ornamentations, List of articulations, Tremolo repeats, Instrument transpositions, Glissando, Grace notes, Falls and doits, Special note heads,

Snippets: Winds

#### Fingerings

All wind instruments other than the trombone require the use of several fingers to produce each pitch.

TBC

Other languages: español, deutsch.

#### Notation Reference