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Grade 4 Music Theory Lesson 13: Ornaments & Foreign Musical Terms

Ornaments

Ornaments are symbols that tell the player to change the written note in a specific way. Some ornaments are written on the stave itself, while others are written above it. Ornaments are never written below the stave.

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

(Try to learn how to spell them correctly too! The last two are the hardest - try to remember which letters are doubled!)

You need to learn each ornament's symbol, name and how it is written out. In the grade four exam you won't have to write out ornaments in full yourself, (you have to do that at grade six!), but you might be asked to name an ornament from looking at its written out type, instead of its symbol.

Symbol	Name	Description of symbol	How it Sounds
	Trill	"tr" (often with 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:

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