- Ornaments
The 2nd way to add musical punctuation is through ornaments. These are special little ex-
tras that add quickly sounding notes to a written note.
Trill
A trill is written....
....and is a fast alternation between 2 adjacent notes.
However, it is important to note, rather confusingly, that the actual playing of trills and other
ornaments differs according to the time period from which the piece of music you are play-
ing comes from! A trill written in the 18th century usually started on the note above the trill
note and go down to the written note, whilst one written in the 19th century will start on the
note written and go up - all rather confusing really!! Most pieces of music have accompa-
nying notes at the start to tell you how to play the ornaments.
Mordent
A mordent and inverted mordent are written....
and sound....
Turn
The Turn (or grupetto) is written....