Questions tagged [ornaments]
For questions about using ornaments for music or any other general questions about ornaments. Ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Examples of ornaments include the mordent, turn and trill.
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What is small arch between two notes and how to play it?
I'm relatively new to guitar techniques and music theory. I was watching a YouTube tutorial on playing Turkish March, I faced this notation:
I'm wondering what is the arch connecting 5 to 7 means ...
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How to play multi-note Appogiaturas and Acciaccaturas
Correct me if I'm wrong but from my knowledge appogiaturas begin on the beat and acciaccaturas begin before the beat.
How then exactly is one supposed to play this 3-note appogiatura (or any-note ...
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Can trills have 3 notes instead of two?
I want to include an ornament in my sheet music notation but I am not sure if it should be a trill or a turn. Perhaps someone could tell me which is better. This piece is 4/4 time in C major.
So, ...
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Why are 16th note apoggiaturas not written as normal 16th notes?
Here it is telling the performer to play a 16th note A before the G. That would make all 4 notes in the beat 16th notes. Why wouldnt a composer just write the 16th notes?
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How to write a trill from a 32nd notes
I need to turn this 32nd note trill on beat 3 into something simpler with a trill ornament
What would be the best way to write it?
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Finale: Human Playback off for one effect
I am using Finale (2024) to create short music theory examples, and generally they're greatly improved by using human playback on (because they're mostly classical). However, because they're music ...
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How to determine the timing of multi-note appoggiaturas?
I know that appoggiaturas are played on the beat and that the appoggiatura takes half the time of the following note, except when followed by a dotted note. Then it usually takes two-thirds of the ...
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What is this pointy curved ornament? [duplicate]
I don’t know what the pointy curved thing is; I’ve never seen it before until now.
If anyone could give me any advice that would be great.
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Identify this symbol?
In an arrangement of 'We go together' that my marching band plays, there is one point when the trumpets are instructed to make a wah-wah-wah-wah sound on four notes. These notes, along with the text, ...
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Flam under a fermata
The music is notated for me to play a flam but it’s under a fermata. Do I just play it once or do I keep playing flams while director holds the fermata?
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What is this vocal ornament called?
There is a vocal technique used in this audio clip that sounds Arabic and melismatic on the lyric “smile”. The notes go up from G3 to G#3 and back to G3 again. Some say it is a mordent but I think the ...
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how to read and play a turn in music when it is inbetween 2 notes?
for example in this Mozart piece, there is a turn in bar 7, and in bar 10
how are you suppose to play these turns rhythmically? how else could the notes be notated?
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Dot in front of a mordent
I am singing Messe de Minuit pour Noël by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and stumbled on some notation unknown to me. There are quite a few mordents in the piece and some of them are denoted with a ...
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Pile up of ornaments in J.S.Bach's BWV 935
These are bars 19-23 in J.S. Bach's BWV 935, from the Sechs kleine Präludien für Anfänger auf dem Klavier:
Can anyone spell out for me what should be played for that E in bar 23 adorned with a grace ...
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Playing gruppetto with accidentals
I am playing the Chopin's Prélude in E minor, Op. 28 No. 4, and I wonder how I should play the following gruppetto.
Notice that the A note is already sharp.
Much appreciate your explanations!
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Accidentals and ornaments
These are the first two bars of J. S. Bach's Fughetta in c-moll (BWV 961) as edited by Henle.
Does the second trillo in the second bar start on B flat, so that it cancels the natural on the previous ...
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What does this flat symbol over a turn mean?
I think it means for the starting note to be lowered one semitone, but I'm not sure.
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Creative Ideas for Teaching Musical Ornaments to Kids [closed]
I am a music teacher planning to introduce the concept of musical ornaments to a group of young children. I want to make this educational experience engaging and fun for them, and I'm seeking creative ...
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Appoggiaturas not playing in Noteflight audio
I have arranged Für Elise in Noteflight with two 16th note appoggiaturas circled in red. I expect them to play in the audio but they don't (unlike acciaccaturas which do play).
The bar with the ...
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Ornaments in baroque music: should be avoided in some cases?
In baroque music, often the performers add ornaments (or even more complex variations) to the written notes, mostly during a repeat. It's very common to hear them on Bach, Vivaldi, Marcello, etc...
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Are grace note pairs and a mordent played differently? [duplicate]
When I play the mordent and the graces notes highlighted, they sound the same. Should they be approached differently? Why would they be notated differently?
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Bach BWV 817: how do you realize this ornament, bars 10, 18 [duplicate]
How do you realize this ornament with the big tailhook at the end?
The editorial contains a cheat sheet but not this particular
ornament.
Bach BWV 817 Sarabande (Henle): bars 10, 18
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Is there a notation for a short rest of undetermined length; the rest equivalent of a grace note?
Here's the phrase I'm working on, a nice chord progression from the finale of a symphony movement (Dopper 7 mov. 1) that I'm arranging for solo piano.
So the B♭ trill in the right hand exists for ...
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Unknown Notation with a sharp, curved line
I was looking at a piece of music when I came across the symbol pictured below (the sharp, curved line between the tenuto and accent).
Can anyone help me identify it?
For reference, the piece that I ...
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Multiple grace note snare drum ornament
I am looking at Sergei Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights (from the Romeo & Juliet ballet: Act I, Scene 2, No. 13) .
In mm. 9–10 (from rehearsal mark [77]) and also a few times later in the piece ...
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How do I play a crossed note before a hammer-on?
The tab below is from Stop this Train - John Mayer
How am I suppose to play the part circled in red?
Also what is the correct name for this notation?
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Bach BWV 812 Menuet I: do(can) ornaments presage the accidental?
In Bach BWV 812 Menuet I bar 6 we have a trill preceding an accidental — the thrust of the bar is to B(natural), therefore in the preceding trill do(would) you trill on B(natural)-A or B(flat)-A?
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How do you distinguish an upper mordent from a trill?
I recently learned of the upper mordent. (first ornament in this image from Wikipedia)
To me, it looks identical to the trill from the table of ornaments I'm familiar with:
When encountering this ...
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What's this flat squiggly line below the notes at the end of this clarinet jazz solo?
This is from cuphead.
Youtube link here:
It kind of sounds like vibrato.
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What is the best way to notate/convey this ornament?
I'm currently writing a piece of music (solo piano) which has a certain ornament. This is the way that I want it to be played:
It would be really nice if I could notate it something like the ...
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Bach French Suite BWV 816: Allemande - what is the ornament with the swoosh at the end?
I am using this reference for ornamentation from the Foreword of J.S. Bach 16 well-known original pieces (Henle). The ornament in bar 9 looks like "idem" but the swoosh comes at the end (...
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Mozart K.494: How do you play this (turn inside a tie)?
Mozart K.494 b.178 near the end of the movement. (This is the 3rd
movement of the sonata K.533/K.494)
This is in bass clef BTW. This image is the Bärenreiter edition.
Henle puts only the turn option.
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How to play a turn? [closed]
What does the turn notation symbol mean to play rhythmically?
what if it is not on the note but in between 2 notes? thanks
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What is the difference between a mordent and turn?
I've tried Googling the difference between a turn and mordent, but all the answers are really vague. I also couldn't find any helpful images that explain to me. I'm really confused right now. Turns ...
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How do I notate alternating quickly between two notes an octave away from each other?
I'm vaguely sure that an ornament exists for this but I'm not sure which one it is. I'm a music theory beginner, so pardon me if there's a simple answer. Basically, I want to alternate quickly between ...
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Strange "less than" accent or ornament in Sullivan's "The Mikado" score
In the old Kalmus handwritten conductor's score for The Mikado, a few notes in the overture had a unfamiliar notation. For example, here's Measure 50 from the oboe part (other instruments have ...
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Why are accented passing tones not figured but suspensions are?
If 4-3 happens as a suspension and it is figured then why not also figure an accented passing tone 4-3?
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Is there a word for when you scoop to the same note?
I'm a vocalist who's done different kinds of ensembles over the years, and I often have this instinct to scoop to (rearticulate? emphasize?) a repeated note if the other voices change to make a ...
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Shift trill symbol horizontally in Lilypond
I'm rewriting (with Lilypond) an old copy of Händel's Allemande HWV 437 and I can not recreate the orignial position of the trill symbol. In the original the ornament begins with the note 'b', yet ...
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I don't know how to deal with the trills in Bach's Fugue in D Minor
(Included from comment: the fugue is from well-tempered clavier, vol. 1 BWV 851)
All research I do gives me a different answer. One example said to use the auxiliary note first - more in keeping with ...
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Bach Invention 2 Bar 13 overlapping keys for both hands while playing mordent
I know there are related previous discussions (I had asked one here, which , interestingly, was also a Bar "13"), but they concerned one individual key overlap. In this case, left hand plays ...
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Grace notes with slash
What exactly does the slash mean as opposed to the other?
And if you have a group of grace notes together, do you just slash the first one?
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Trill notation with a wavy line
There are 2 trill notations: 'tr' and 'tr' followed by a wavy line.
What exactly is the difference and when is one used over the other?
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Timing of grace notes in Chopin's Waltz in a minor
Consider the following:
(Chopin At the Piano - Verlag)
Should the grace notes be played before the beat or on the beat? I am reading a book on music theory, and it says:
(The AB Guide to Music ...
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How did Glenn Gould know, in 1955, the proper ornamentation for Bach's "Goldberg Variations"?
This question has its origin in Why does the Open Goldberg score have a G rather than A in bar 9 of variation 25?. See that Q&A for background information.
At what time, and on what basis, was ...
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Beethoven Sonata Op. 49 No. 2 Bar 12 trill
I just started learning this piece on my own. I played the trill (red circle) as A G F# G (So with the context it's G AGF#G A. Is it correct? When I listen to the videos played by professionals on ...
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What kind of non-chord tone dissonance is this?
What is the correct term for this type of non-chord tone? I really like the sound of it and since I see it a lot I was wondering if an "official" name exists for it. It is not a suspension ...
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What are the ornaments in the western music and their corresponding ornaments in Indian music?
I am learning to play the different ornaments in western music (Trill, Tremolo, Turn, Appoggiatura, Acciaccatura, Glissando, Slide). I also want to know which are the corresponding ornaments in Indian ...
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Baroque ornamentation is not consistent across editions of the same piece
Here are two versions of the Quodlibet from Bach's Goldberg Variations. As you can see in the attachments, the ornaments and the recommendations as to how to play them are exactly opposite. One shows ...
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ornamentation in keyboard music of William Byrd
I'm working through some tunes by Byrd, and am wondering about the ornamentation, the two diagonal slashes through the note stem.
As far as I can tell, we don't actually know what the composers of ...
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