How To Teach Basic Ornamentation
There's a lot of confusion amongst piano teachers about how to teach ornaments. I'm hopeful that this video can help clear up some of that and provide a basis for teaching the four most common ornaments in intermediate and early advanced repertoire: the mordent, trill, turn and appoggiatura.
This is NOT a musicological treatise, but is simply intended to be a beginner's guide and starting point for further study. I have also recently learned that there may be some discrepancies in the terms trill and mordent (or inverted mordent) outside the US. I made this video using entirely US terminology as that is where I have had my training.
Resources mentioned include:
Ornamentation: A Question & Answer Manual by Carole Bigler and Valery Lloyd-Watts
Willard Palmer's Alfred Masterworks edition of the Bach Inventions
Henle urtext edition of the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach
Maurice Hinson's Alfred Masterworks edition of the Haydn Sonatas
Let me know if you have specific questions about ornamentation in intermediate repertoire you’re currently teaching!
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