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Lesson 4: Bagpipe Embellishments
What is an Embellishment?
In music, embellishments or ornaments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line.
Why we Use Embellishments
The bagpipes unlike most instruments is a legato instrument. This means that there is a continues sound with no breaks between notes. They are used in bagpipe music to help separate notes of the same pitch, to accent notes and to just make the music more interesting for the player and listener.
Bagpipe embellishments are things such as; grace notes, doublings, grips, strikes and many others that you will learn in these lessons.
Here are 2 examples of the same tune, one with embellishments and one without.
Tune Without Embellishments
In music, embellishments or ornaments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody (or harmony), but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line.
Why we Use Embellishments
The bagpipes unlike most instruments is a legato instrument. This means that there is a continues sound with no breaks between notes. They are used in bagpipe music to help separate notes of the same pitch, to accent notes and to just make the music more interesting for the player and listener.
Bagpipe embellishments are things such as; grace notes, doublings, grips, strikes and many others that you will learn in these lessons.
Here are 2 examples of the same tune, one with embellishments and one without.
Tune Without Embellishments
Tune With Embellishments
You should be able to hear a massive difference between these examples. The tune with no embellishments is boring to listen to and is not very melodic. Whereas the tune with embellishments sounds melodic, full and interesting. When learning a new tune it is important that you try and play all the embellishments in the tune. Embellishments are put into tunes for a reason. They are not there to just make it harder to play.