Any piano players out there? Would you mind answering a question?

[peanutbutterkid]

I am teaching myself out of books -- this works well for me, I really couldn't handle having formal lessons. I think I might be scraping a Grade 1 sort of level of achievement.

Could somebody explain to me how a slur works if it covers a large range of notes? Like
C (lots of notes over several bars) finishing on lower G?
I think you just slur the lot, from C to G.
But maybe you sustain the C until you reach the G?
Just checking so I can be sure I understand what I'm doing.
Thanks, if anyone can explain so I can understand!

It's to encourage you to play that group of notes smoothly, as if it's one 'phrase'. You would only sustain the first note if it had a longer value than the subsequent notes.

I think

What Janni said - it's a phrasing mark indicating that you should play all the notes from C to G as though you were singing them in one breath. You should keep a legato line (ie not detach the notes) but don't sustain them for longer than their written values. What is the piece?

Janni is right - it's just phrasing so you don't hold onto the first note. As she says, just indicates that those notes belong together in one phrase.
eg if you had one group of 4 notes phrased together and then another group of 4 you may put a very tiny break or pause inbetween the 2 groups but play each set of 4 notes together. It's difficult to explain without doing a demo! Good luck with it, am full of admiration for you teaching yourself as an adult.

Yes, it's a phrasing mark - imagine it's like a sentence. Music is made up of 'sentence' like phrases, so it tells you to 'link' the notes together as words in a sentence!

oh thanks so much, I did have it right, then. Just needed to be sure.
I need to ask for a live demo sometime, so I can learn to hear a long slur, too.
I'm currently working thru a book of Ragtime music. I find it very technical, I expect that's good for me to work on.
I'm too shy to have a teacher, but am enjoying learning very much.
Cheers again.