Ornamentation: A Question & Answer Manual: Piano

This manual cuts through the confusion that stops pianists from playing ornaments with confidence. Rather than offering rules without context, Lloyd-Watts and Bigler show you how ornament conventions shifted across centuries, then give you concrete strategies for realizing them accurately. Your students will stop viewing ornaments as decorative afterthoughts and start understanding them as integral to the composer's voice.

Clear and methodical. The text removes ornaments from the realm of mystery and places them squarely within historical context, giving you permission to make informed choices rather than defaulting to habit or convenience.

Intermediate and advanced pianists who want to move beyond guessing how to execute trills, mordents, turns, and other ornaments. This resource serves pianists preparing for recitals, examinations, or simply seeking to honor the composer's intention across multiple eras of keyboard literature.

• Study the ornament conventions of the specific era your piece comes from before deciding how many notes to use; Bach ornaments differ fundamentally from Chopin ornaments
• Practice ornaments separately at a slow tempo, then gradually integrate them into the larger phrase so they feel natural rather than imposed
• Return to the guide whenever you encounter an unfamiliar ornament sign; consistency across your repertoire depends on understanding the underlying principles, not memorizing isolated symbols

Keep this on your teaching desk as a resource when students bring you Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, or any composer whose ornaments are written differently than the student's instinct suggests. Use it as a studio supplement before assigning Baroque or Classical sonatas, so students arrive with shared language about ornamental practices. It's equally valuable for pianists preparing competition repertoire that spans multiple historical periods.

• Identifying and interpreting ornament symbols across Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern repertoire
• Determining the correct number and type of notes to use in each ornament based on historical practice and composer intent
• Integrating ornaments smoothly into phrase contour and tempo
• Practicing ornaments systematically so they become fluent rather than labored
• Understanding the relationship between ornament style and musical period