Recorder/Whistle Ornamentations

Rhythmic

• Cut: take lowest finger(s) off
• Tap: put extra finger(s) on
• Roll: Cut then Tap
• Cran: forked close-fingered Cut
• Click: in a keyed instrument, using the sound of the key as percussion
• Pulse/Accent: pushing out much more air at the start of a note
• Flick: an Pulse so strong it causes overblow
• Doublet/Triplet/etc: articulate X times during a note
• Staccato: articulate between every note
  • You can get different sounds by using different articulators.
  • Recorders habituate tonguing and whistles habituate glottal-stopping; but you can break the mould whenever you want.
  • "But you can do staccato without articulation!" [h] is still an articulation (ask your nearest phonetician).
• Bounce: tonguing in styles where tonguing is not the norm
• †Shutter: block the window with your finger

Melodic

• Mordent/Battement: Cut or Tap to the nearest note in the scale
• Turn: Roll with the nearest notes in the scale
• Petal: full extra note; accessory note
  • Grace Note: an extra note right before a main note
  • Passing Note: a note to link two notes (like when going up/down)
  • Echo: softly repeat a note
• Fold: play up/down exactly one octave when a note is too low/high
• Harmony: replace the actual note with a note in the same chord

Quality

• Ghost: play a note very softly
• Slide: gradually peel finger(s) off
• Glissando: slow Slide
• Bend: Slide up a semitone (often by sliding up to a half-hole)
• Shading: subtly alter the pitch of a note
• Vibrato: vary the airstream via breath or vary the pitch via finger(s)
  • I like weakly half-holing for this, but anything less than a semitone works well.
  • A whistle teacher (John Maschinot) suggested using forked fingerings for this, but this method obviously works very poorly on recorder, since forked fingerings frequently cause large pitch changes for it.
• Shake: between Trill and Vibrato
• Trill: repeated Cuts xor repeated Taps without intervening notes
• Flutter: perform any of what phoneticians call a "trill", so long as said trill is not laryngeal
• Growl: laryngeal Flutter (ie, an epiglottal trill)
  • Just when you thought recorders couldn't get any cooler, we added throat-singing to them. Checkmate, atheists!
• †Shredding: rapidly moving your tongue side-to-side to block the window
  • My own signature technique for playing metal on recorder.
  • Named for someone's reaction to hearing me play Through the Fire and Flames: "Dude figured out how to shred a recorder!"
• †Voicing/Buzzing/Distortion: hum instead of blowing
  • Makes notes ~buzz~. Very exotic/interesting sound.
  • Breathy voice is the same effect as modal and creaky, so use breathy to make airflow easier and the sound of your voice quieter.
  • Uses up a lot of air, makes it more-difficult to control pressure, and makes it difficult to cleanly articulate.
  • You can technically hum in harmony with your instrument this way, if you want.
  • Truly a new meaning to "voice flute".
• Multiphonics: playing two notes at once with forbidden breath pressure and forbidden fingering
  • Three notes at once if you hum while doing it.
  • Four notes at once if you throat-sing while doing it.

Notes

• †: non-standard name.