Ornaments & Articulation

A glossary of ornament and articulation signs — trill, mordent, turn, grace note, tremolo, staccato, tenuto, slur, tie and more — with how each is played.

What's inside

• Ornaments that decorate a note — trill, mordent, lower mordent, turn, grace note, tremolo — with sign, meaning and how it's played
• Articulation marks that shape a note — staccato, staccatissimo, tenuto, accent, marcato — with how each changes the sound
• Slur, tie and fermata — how to tell a slur from a tie, and what a fermata asks for
• Slur or tie? — the one question that tells them apart, and where each mark is written relative to the notehead and stem