13. Ornaments & Foreign Musical Terms

Ornaments

Ornaments are symbols that are written above notes on the stave. They tell the player to change the written note in a specific way. 

In the grade four exam, you need to be able to recognise and name the following ornaments:

• trill
• turn
• upper mordent
• lower mordent
• acciaccatura
• appoggiatura

(Make sure you can spell them correctly too! The last two are the hardest - try to remember which letters are doubled!)

In the grade four exam you won't have to write out ornaments in full. (You have to do that at grade six!) You need to learn each ornament's symbol and name.

Symbol	Name	Description of symbol	How it Sounds
	Trill	"tr" plus a wavy line
	Turn	Like a backwards "s" on its side
	Upper Mordent	Short zigzag
	Lower Mordent	Short zigzag with a line through
	Acciaccatura	Small sized quaver with a line through its tail
	Appoggiatura	Small sized note (usually a crotchet)

Musical Terms

You need to know ALL the terms and symbols from grades one, two and three, plus these new ones: