Ornaments: music symbols explained

9 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.

trTrill

A trill: flutter quickly between the written note and the note above it, for the length of the written note.

Mordent

A quick pinch, on the beat and inside the written note's own time: the written note, its neighbour, and straight back. With a stroke through the sign the neighbour is the note BELOW; without one it is the note above, and the sign is an upper mordent.

turnTurn

A little loop around the note: the note above, the note itself, the note below, and home again.

Grace note

The small note is borrowed time, not a beat of its own: it leans into the full-size note beside it. With a slash through its stem it is crushed in as fast as possible; without one, it takes a share of the main note's time.

Upper mordent

The same flick upwards: the note above and straight back. A zigzag with no line.

Acciaccatura

A grace note with a line through its flag: crushed in as fast as possible, taking almost nothing from the note it decorates.

Appoggiatura

A leaning note. It takes real time from the note it resolves to, usually half of it, and it leans because it is a dissonance falling into a consonance.

Arpeggiate

The wavy line before a chord: roll it from the bottom up rather than striking it together.

Tremolo

A note or pair repeated as fast as possible, written as beams across the stem rather than as separate notes.

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