Notating fingered articulations (cuts and strikes) in ocarina music

As discussed in a previous article, fingered articulations are an approach to separating notes by sounding a higher or lower pitch for a brief duration.

These techniques originate in folk tradition where music is learned by ear. If it is used at all, sheet music provides only the notes of a tune, and individual players apply fingered articulations in their own way. How to do this is learned by ear through the imitation of performances.

Due to these factors, there is no universal, unambiguous way of notating fingered articulations. Several approaches exist, many invented by authors of written learning resources. These systems vary widely in their clarity.

Grey Larsen notation

In his book 'The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle', Grey Larsen introduces a system for notating cuts and strikes using symbols placed above notes.

• Cuts are notated by placing a blocky comma (',') directly above the note.
• Strikes are notated by placing an arrow above a note.

In case these symbols are unavailable in notation software, the same intent can be communicated using textual annotations: 'CT' means 'cut', and 'ST' means 'strike'.

This is my preferred notation system because I find it clearly communicates intent. It is less verbose than the other options mentioned below and is conceptually similar to other articulation notations, such as staccato dots. I find it easy to read.

The system has a few limitations, though, including not indicating which finger to use for the articulation. In most cases, this does not matter, as a correctly performed cut or strike is so brief that its pitch is not perceived. Thus, any fingering can be used, depending on what is easiest.

If one needs to indicate a fingering in a teaching resource, this can be explained with prose. One could also use numbers to indicate the cutting or striking finger, in a similar way to fingering notation for piano.

Visual ambiguity may exist in that the wedge symbol of the cut is similar to a breath mark, but can be easily avoided using a visually different breath mark. The down arrow is visually similar to an up bow mark used in string instrument notation, but I don't think this would matter.

Notations using grace notes in folk music

Fingered articulations are widely used in Irish and other folk music traditions of the British Isles. Some authors of books on learning the tin whistle, flute, folk fiddle, and similar instruments have developed systems for notating fingered articulations using classical grace note symbols.

Grace notes are small note symbols written before another note. Two kinds of them exist in classical theory:

• Appoggiatura, which typically notates optional melodic details.
• Acciaccatura, written with a slash and intended to be played 'as fast as possible' before the note they are ornamenting. Typically, they should be performed with the 'correct' fingering for the written pitch.

The general idea behind these notation systems is that a grace note placed above the parent note means that it should be articulated with a cut, and a grace note placed below means that it should be articulated with a strike.

Beyond this, the notation is inconsistent, and many examples do not differentiate between acciaccatura and appoggiatura. That's why I would recommend treating any singular grace note encountered in a notated folk tune to mean 'play a cut' or 'play a strike', irrespective of its written duration.

The placement of the grace note's head sometimes indicates the finger that one should use to perform the cut or strike. In other cases, its absolute position does not matter:

• Absolute notation uses grace notes to represent the finger a cut and strike should be performed on. The example of absolute notation below is for a D tin whistle and means "play a cut using the 'C' finger" (the left index finger).
• Vague notation places a grace note on the line above or below and just means 'play a cut' or 'play a strike' like Grey Larsen's notation. It does not mean 'play a cut on the next scale degree'.

These terms reflect patterns that I've observed in real music notation, and are not in common use.

On the ocarina, I'd just treat both kinds of notation as vague and use whatever fingering is easiest. On a tubular instrument, cutting higher up the tube produces a higher pitch. Because of acoustic differences between tubular and globular instruments, the fingerings don't translate well.

Strikes in both absolute and vague notation are represented by placing a grace note on the scale degree below the current note. This is due to a limitation of the tin whistle and similar instruments, as it is only possible to strike the hole below the lowest open hole.

You may also run across instances where multiple grace notes occur before a note. These are typically attempts to notate rolls and cranns.

Unfortunately, this notation often doesn't bear much resemblance to how they are played. For instance, the example below shows a group of grace notes interpreted as an Irish long roll, but there are other ways one could interpret it.

Exploring all the variations of these grace note blocks and how they should be performed is beyond the scope of this article. Numerous variations exist, developed by different authors, and many of them are attempting to notate the same intended performance.

These groups of grace notes are quite meaningless without additional information, and I dislike this kind of notation because it does not clearly communicate to the performer what they should do. It is preferable just to notate the individual cuts and strikes, as shown in the expanded example above.

I'd recommend the book 'The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle' if you want to learn more about the ornamentation used in Irish music. It is a comprehensive study and is easily adapted to the ocarina.

Highland bagpipe notation

The Highland bagpipe also has a comprehensive system for notating fingered articulations. The instrument was adopted by the army in the 1800's and played in large pipe bands. Standardised notation was developed to coordinate the group.

The Highland bagpipe is an instrument of its own, deviating from classical theory in several ways. The scale runs from G4 to A5 with two sharps and is not chromatic. This may be considered an A Mixolydian scale or several modes of D. The instrument's sounding pitch is typically higher than written, but varies between instruments.

In a bagpipe, the player blows into a bag acting as an air reservoir, and pressure is regulated by squeezing the bag. Air constantly flows from the bag through several reed pipes, including the 'chanter' (melody pipe) and one or more drones that play a fixed accompanying pitch.

Because of the constant air flow from the bag through the pipes, it is not possible to 'tongue' notes as on other instruments. However, early players of these instruments noticed that an impression of separate notes could be achieved using extremely short 'notes', so brief as to sound like a 'click'. They started using this approach to articulate notes and developed special fingerings to make this easier.

Highland bagpipe notation represents these fingered articulations using grace note symbols like folk musicians sometimes do. As far as I can see, the notation does not interpret them in the same way as classical theory. Appoggiaturas are used exclusively, and their performance depends on context.

A single grace note represents an articulation. They are meant to be played with a subliminal duration and precisely on the beat or sub-beat of their parent note. To achieve that reliably, special fingerings are used, lifting or striking a single finger.

This notation is interpreted quite literally. A grace note on G means to very briefly uncover the G finger hole (play a cut using the G finger).

Highland bagpipe notation also makes use of groups of two or more grace notes beamed together. These groups correspond to one of a set of standardised embellishments, including throws, grips, or doublings.

Unlike singular grace notes, these groups do not tell you exactly how to perform the embellishment, and the relationship between the notes and the intended performance is quite inconsistent.

The notation below shows approximately how a 'grip' is performed. This embellishment is performed before the note it is embellishing. The two low G's are performed with 'proper' fingering and are usually perceived as notes. The C grace note is performed as a cut by briefly opening only the hole for the 'C' finger.

Many Highland bagpipe ornaments jump to low G like this, as it is the loudest note on the instrument. Leaping to the low G serves to create emphasis.

The next example shows another kind of embellishment called a 'doubling', a double articulation of a single note. Rhythmically, it begins in time with the embellished note and is performed as two cuts. The first cut is played on the beat of the embellished note, and the second marginally later.

As you can see, the notation isn't consistent. Some of the grace notes are played as cuts or strikes, by opening or closing only a single hole, while others are played with 'proper' fingerings, requiring opening or closing multiple holes.

Rhythmic interpretation is also inconsistent, as even though the grace notes written have the same duration, some are played longer than others. In some cases, the embellishment as a whole precedes the embellished note, while in other cases it follows it.

This inconsistency and lack of a literal interpretation does not matter within the Highland bagpipe tradition because players are taught by a teacher demonstrating the correct performance at a low tempo. They learn to associate the visual pattern of the notation with the performance, much like a guitarist can associate a chord symbol like 'C' with a given fingering pattern.

Approaching the study of bagpipe notation for this article, I had expected the notation to more clearly indicate how something is to be performed and was surprised to find that it doesn't.

This ambiguity could be reduced relatively easily if the notation used acciaccatura exclusively to represent cuts and strikes, and appoggiatura to notate notes held for a perceptible duration. Thus, the meaning of groups of grace notes would be less ambiguous.

Overall, I found it surprising that the correct performance of Highland pipe ornaments is dependent on oral tradition, as it is not clearly indicated by notation alone.

Why using grace notes for notating fingered articulations could be ambiguous in ocarina music

In contrast to the Highland bagpipe and folk traditions, the ocarina player community is less insular. Most skilled players did not start on the ocarina, but came to it after learning another instrument. This means that the ocarina has players from many backgrounds, including folk musicians and those with classical training.

The usage of grace notes for notating fingered articulations can be ambiguous because it deviates from what they are taught to mean in classical tradition. Of the two kinds of grace note symbol, acciaccaturas are closest in concept to fingered articulations, since they are intended to be played 'as fast as possible'. However, there remains ambiguity about whether to use correct or false fingerings, as well as about the exact rhythmic timing (before or on the beat).

Folk fiddle technique does differentiate between grace notes and cuts. Grace notes are performed by fully depressing a string to the fingerboard to sound the note, while cuts are performed by flicking a finger across a string, barely touching it, and serving to mute the string briefly.

It was also apparent to me from studying guides on playing the instrument that Highland pipe players do make a distinction between ornamental grace notes and fingered articulations, even though they don't have a word for it.

The alternative way of using and interpreting grace notes works for the Highland pipe community, as it is deeply ingrained in the instrument's tradition. Players learn what the notation means and how to perform it while learning the instrument.

But with the ocarina, it would not surprise me if some players already used grace notes under the assumption of their standard interpretation in classical theory. Also, using them to notate fingered articulations could be ambiguous. Using a distinct notation like Grey Larsen's avoids that.

It is also worth considering how naming can impact understanda­bility. Calling cuts and strikes 'grace notes' can be confusing, as people have a preconceived idea of what a 'note' is. Fingered articulations do not serve the same function and are not perceived in the same way.

Closing

Understanding how cuts and strikes are notated within the music traditions that use them allows you to interpret this notation as it was intended.

For notation that you are using yourself, you can do whatever you want. But when sharing or publishing music, more care is needed. I'd suggest using Grey Larsen's notation or something semantically equivalent to avoid ambiguity.

If you use grace notes to notate fingered articulations in published ocarina music, I strongly recommend including a description of how to interpret and play them, since this may be ambiguous out of context.

References

• The Piper's Corner: Understanding Bagpipe Music (web page).
• Learning the Great Highland Bagpipes (Ian B Ferguson)
• Learn to play the Highland Bagpipe (Andreas Hambsch)
• Numerous demonstrations of Highland pipe embellishments on YouTube, used to learn what they should sound like.
• The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle (Grey Larsen)
• Mel Bay's Complete Irish Fiddle Player (Peter Cooper)