{"id":186,"date":"2019-12-17T20:28:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T02:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/?p=186"},"modified":"2023-03-09T17:51:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T23:51:22","slug":"what-is-that-sideways-s-in-music-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundadventurer.com\/what-is-that-sideways-s-in-music-for\/","title":{"rendered":"What is That Sideways S in Music For? Turns & Mordents With Examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It’s amazing what kind of musical notation you can stumble on. You might have seen an S or a squiggly line that’s not a trill above your music, and thought “how on earth do I play that?” Well, hopefully by the end of this article you’ll know how. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is that Sideways S in Music? The turn, also known as the gruppetto, appears as a sideways S above the staff<\/strong>. The “turn”, based on its orientation signifies playing the the note above or below the “primary” note, the primary note itself, the note above or below the turn note, and then the primary note itself again.<\/strong> Mordents are played similarly without the last note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I admit, as I was doing research for this article, I found some good information on Wikipedia. But, if you’re like me, you found the information a little lacking–so I decided to write a bit more in depth with some examples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First I’ll explain the sideways S, or the Gruppetto, and then I’ll talk about Mordents… because they also kind of look like S’s, and I think it will help the discussion since the concept is similar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you didn’t find what you are looking for, I explain all the S-shaped music symbols in my other post here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n