Hey, y'all who play #mandolin, especially #classicalmandolin (or analogously #classicalguitar #guitar), how do I interpret the slurs over the top?

This is Etude No. 1 from an old #French mandolin primer from ~1907 with 25 etudes in it. I am an amateur and this is andante, so my notes are decaying before I can link them together legato-like. Are these just phrase markers? Etude 2 has a note expressly instructing the student to use tremolo so I think tremolo is not in Etude 1.

#strings #music