FolkScore Ornaments

Each one is played plain first, then ornamented, so you can hear the difference. Slow it right down to hear what's going on inside an ornament. Grace notes are so quick they barely have a pitch: you hear them as a flick or a bump in the note, not as a tune. The ornaments here are in D major on whistle and flute and on the fiddle's A and E strings; they work the same way in any key.

A few words of advice

• Learn the tune plain first. Ornaments go on a tune you already know, not one you're learning.
• Cuts and taps are about rhythm, not pitch. They give a note a sharp start, like a consonant at the start of a word.
• Less is more. One good roll in the right place says more than ten in a row.
• Listen to good players and copy where they put their ornaments. Every region, and every player, does it differently.