Hope this guide is helpful.
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In this guide, music theory is about what you play instead of how; and it's about how to make things sound good. Techniques are more about how to play, physically. Both music theory and techniques are important to playing well -- and both are really fun to learn, too.
You don't have to learn it all in one go, by any means. It took me many days to learn all this stuff well enough to write this glossary. But don't feel pressured to be as fast as that, even. Skim around, read the parts that intrigue you, follow the links in those parts if it looks interesting, and just have fun with it.
If anyone has any comments or criticism, things to add, inaccurate information to remove (including any spelling mistakes), or just a better way of explaining anything below, please do say!
[Note: The symbol for 'flat' ('♭') doesn't work in all browsers, so I've used the lowercase letter 'b' instead.]
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Glossary of Techniques and Terminology
* Tonguing *
Separating/articulating notes using the tongue.
Type: Tongue technique.
Details: Try saying "ta-ta-ta" into the ocarina. This is called 'tonguing'.
The idea is that you briefly touch the tongue to the front of the roof of the mouth at the start of the note. This is to be contrasted with saying "hoo-hoo-hoo" into the ocarina (which is just blowing with your tongue not doing anything).
This is generally what is used to play notes. So, for beginners, you'll probably want to tongue every note. (Even advanced players tongue most notes.)
* Flutter Tongue *
Vibrating/rolling the tongue to make fluttering sound.
Type: Tongue technique.
Details: This is done by pressing the tongue to the roof of your mouth, and blowing in such a way that the tongue 'flutters' up and down repeatedly.
It's the same sort of thing as rolling your Rs in the the Spanish double-R sound. Try pressing your tongue to the top of your mouth, relaxing, and blowing, and let the tongue waver up and down (you can do this either in a relaxed and slow way, or a tense and rapid way).
If you're having difficulty achieving this, you might want to try to vibrate your tongue as though making a machine-gun sound out of your mouth. Or try making a 'purring' sound.
Maintaining this technique requires a lot of air. So if you practice it, use more air than normal playing. Click here for tips on breathing.
* Pendant Trick *
A trick to play an extra note below the normal lowest.
Type: Technique only for Pendant ocarinas.
Details: How to execute this trick varies by ocarina. With most pendants, you just take the mouthpiece into your mouth more (so your lip is closer to the fipple), as if 'eating' the ocarina. This should bend the pitch down to the next note.
With other ocarinas (e.g. Langley), you do this by bringing the ocarina up more horizontally and 'shading' the fipple slightly with your nose.
Also known as 'nosing' (Langley/Ocarina Workshop).
* Acute Bend *
Bending forward to pull the ocarina towards your chest, making high notes sound clearer.
Type: Technique only for Tenor/Alto C 12-hole transverse ocarinas.
Details: This technique is about how to make the high tones (D, E, F) on a transverse Alto C resonate as cleanly as possible.
Bend your head forward, pulling the ocarina towards your chest. The ocarina should become 'upright' and horizontal to the ground. Keep the ocarina at about 10cm away from the chest. If you do this right, the high D, E, F notes should sound very clean and pure, even when breathing strongly.
The reason it works is to do with the frequency between 1000Hz - 1500Hz, and the air pressure inside the ocarina. When the air coming out of the sound hole touches your chest, it will increase the interior air pressure. This enables the ocarina to vibrate, giving a clean, resonant tone.
Also known as "Kkogi" (Korean).
Source, OU Wiki.
* Ornament *
Musical flourishes that aren't necessary to the song, but make the piece sound more interesting.
Type: Music theory.
Details: Ornaments are written either as symbols indicating a certain pattern of notes, or small notes indicating exactly what to do. Types of ornaments include trills, turns and mordents [explained later].
The exact speed at which the notes of an ornament are executed can vary, as can its rhythm. The question of how an ornament is best executed is largely one of context, convention, and taste.
* Grace Note *
A single extra note, not essential to the harmony or melody. The most basic form of ornament.
Type: Ornament: music theory.
Details: A grace note (or bunch of grace notes) is an ornament.
Grace notes can be strung together in any way the composer wishes, rather than in a specific pattern as with ornaments such as trills and turns, and are written out in sheet music with little notes in between the normal notes. They do not take up any beats of the bar.
* Trill *
An ornament in which two adjacent notes are played rapidly in alternation.
Type: Ornament: technique; music theory.
Details: A trill is when you play a note, then you play a higher note, then play the original note again, and do that multiple times in quick succession (finishing on the original note). For example, G A-G-A-G-A G. (For ocarinas, do this without tonguing or stopping the air.)
The minimum number of alternations before going back is two -- so, G A-G-A G. You can have as many alternations as you want (e.g. G A-G-A-G-A-G-A-G-A G -- just add more to the middle).
The higher note can be either a whole tone or semitone above the other note, but no more. For example, you could have them only a semitone apart (like in the key of Eb major): G Ab-G-Ab G.
But you can not have the notes more than a tone apart. So, if you did G B-G-B-G-B G, that would not be a trill.
* Mordent, Upper *
An ornament in which you quickly play a note above the one you're playing.
Type: Ornament: music theory.
Details: Play a note, then quickly play the note above (like a "hammer"), returning to the original note. For example, G-A-G.
It's sort of like a trill, but different because you only play the note once. The word 'mordent' means 'to bite'.
Like a trill, this can be a either a whole tone or a semitone apart, but no more.
See Cut for a similar technique.
Also known as a 'mordent': source, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music)#Mordent
* Mordent, Lower *
An ornament in which you quickly play a note below the one you're playing.
Type: Ornament: music theory.
Details: This is just like the upper mordent, but you play a note below instead of above. So, G-F-G (or G-F#-G).
[See Mordent, Upper.]
Also see Tap/Strike/Hit for a similar technique.
Also known as an 'inverse mordent', source, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music)#Mordent
* Turn *
An ornament in which you play a note above the one you're playing, followed by playing a note below the one you're playing, returning at the end to the original note.
Type: Ornament: music theory.
Details: A turn is an ornament attached to a note; the note above the attached note is played, then the attached note, then the note below the attached note, then the attached note again. For example, if you attach a turn to a G note, the turn would be A-G-F-G.
In sheet music, a turn is written as a curly "~" (which represents the shape the notes go if you write them out and put a horizontal line through them). There are two types of turn: either it can be written above the space where the note is sounding, or it can be written directly above the note itself:
If it's written above the space where a note is, that note is played first and then the turn is played. So in the first bar of this picture, the first note 'C' is turned into 'C D-C-B-C' (the full bar would go from 'C D E' to 'C D-C-B-C D E', with the D-C-B-C part being the turn).
If it's written directly above the note, the turn is played around the note. So, in the second bar of the picture, the note is 'D', and so it is turned into E-D-C-D (the full bar would go from 'C D E' to 'C E-D-C-D E', with the E-D-C-D part being the turn).
What the above picture would look like with the turn written out as notes:
[Note for beginners to sheet music: you might want to ignore that "--3--" thing on the first bar, 'cause that's just saying there's a triplet and isn't related to the turn. The turn is from the second note to the note just after the triplet. If you translate the picture into letters, it would be 'C D-C-B-C D E', with the turn as the part in bold. In the second bar, you can easily see that the turn is the four notes in the middle.]
There is also something called an inverted turn, which is the same as a turn except the low note comes first and the high note comes after.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music)#Turn
* Appoggiatura *
An extra note played before another note.
Type: Ornament: music theory.
Details: An appoggiatura is an ornament where you add a note just before another note. It can be a note just above the other note, or just below. It can be either a whole tone or a semitone apart, but not more than a tone.
So, if we have the main note as G, the appoggiatura would be the note above, A, and added like this: A-G. Or the appoggiatura could be the note below, F, and added like this: F-G. (Or it could be F# (F#-G), or Ab (Ab-G).)
To make the appoggiatura fit, it changes the time of the note it's attached to. How it changes it exactly is up to the player, but often it halves it and takes the space as the other half (or, especially in Baroque music, it can last for longer than the note it's attached to).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music)#Appoggiatura
* Acciaccatura *
A quick extra note played just before another note.
Type: Ornament: music theory.
Details: It's just like an appoggiatura, except it's a lot shorter. (You can remember that the appoggiatura is the longer one because it's podgy.)
The idea is to try not to take any time away from the note it's attached to or the one just before or whatever. Of course, you have to take a little bit of time away from one or the other in order to fit it in at all, but it doesn't really sound like it to the people listening.
So basically, play it fast.
Oh, and it can be either on the beat or just before the beat (but not just after).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornament_(music)#Acciaccatura
* Cut *
Briefly playing a note above the one you're playing without stopping the airflow.
Type: Ornament: technique.
Details: A cut is technique for wind instruments, when you very quickly play a note above the one you're playing, without tonging or breaking the airflow. It's like performing a quick upper mordent, except that it can be more than a tone apart [A/N: Can someone confirm that it can be more than a note apart?].
See Mordent, Upper.
Click here for a good video of how to perform it (it's on a tin whistle, but the same basic principle works for the ocarina).
Source
* Tap or Strike or Hit *
Briefly playing a note below the one you're playing without stopping the airflow.
Type: Ornament: technique.
Details: A technique for wind instruments, when you quickly play a note below the one you're playing, without tonging or breaking the airflow. It's done very fast (just 'tapping' or 'hitting' the hole for a split second). It's like performing a very quick lower mordent.
Click here for a video on how to perform it (it's on a tin whistle, but the same basic principle works for the ocarina).
* Roll *
A note with first a cut and then a strike.
Type: Ornament: technique.
Details: Rolls consist of a note, a cut to a higher note, return to the original note, a tap to the note below, and a final return to the original note. For example, G-A-G-F-G.
There are two common types of rolls:
-The long roll is a group of three slurred notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounded without a cut or strike, the second sounded with a cut, and the third sounded with a strike.
-The short roll is a group of two slurred notes of equal pitch and duration, the first sounded with a cut and the second sounded with a strike.
The idea of the long roll is to break up a note using a roll, instead of tonguing. Okay, say you have three Gs in a row: GGG. You can either separate them by tonguing (more common), or you can separate them by a roll: separating the first and the second by a cut, and the second and third by a tap. So it would be GaGfG (where a and f are the cuts/taps).
The idea of a short roll is like a long roll, except the first note is omitted. To do this, cut the first note as soon as it sounds, then separate the first and second note with a roll.
A roll is sort of like an extremely fast turn.
Click here for a video on how to perform it (it's on a tin whistle, but the same basic principle works for the ocarina).
Source
* Slide *
Gradually sliding a finger over or off a hole to make the transition to the next note more slurred.
Type: Ornament: technique.
Details: Similar to portamentos(/glissando?) in classical music.
A note below or above (usually below) the intended note is fingered, and then the fingering is gradually shifted in order to smoothly raise or lower the pitch to the intended note.
The slide is generally a longer duration ornament than, say, the cut or the tap, and the listener should perceive the pitch changing.
Click here for a video on how to perform it (it's on a tin whistle, but the same principle works for the ocarina).
Source
* Slur *
To play notes without re-tonguing.
Type: Technique/music theory.
Details: 'Slur', in music generally, just means playing with less distinction between notes. So for us ocarina (wind instrument) players, that means playing without tonguing every note.
So that would usually be playing a series of notes using one breath, as opposed to stopping the airflow briefly between notes.
It can cover as few as two notes (as in, a slur from one note to another note), or it could cover a whole bunch of them.
Slurring the notes can give a different feel to playing. It can make it sound more celtic, or oriental, or fancy.
But be careful about over-doing it. Unless the song was designed for lots of slurring, it would usually sound better to use it as spice to make parts of the song more interesting -- not a shortcut for making something sound cool.
Slurring implies legato, which means there shouldn't be silence between notes, when transitioning from note to note. [A/N: If anyone wants me to add 'legato' to this glossary, let me know. Otherwise, Wikipedia's explanation (linked above) is helpful.]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slur_(music)
* Vibrato *
Varying the pitch of the note very slightly up and down quickly to create a "vibration" of the note.
Type: Technique.
Details: Vibrato makes the piece sound like it's being played more emotionally/with more feeling. It works by slightly varying one's breath pressure up and down quickly.
The way to do this is hard to explain, but basically you 'breath from your stomach' instead of your lungs (of course this isn't technically accurate, because stomachs can't breath, but this is what it feels like). It uses the same muscles as when you whisper "ha ha ha". You may have already done this somewhat when playing. It kinda feels like playing with "more feeling".
For a more in-depth explanation, see this thread.
Also this thread.
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As long as you have an ocarina that it's possible on, you can do any of these techniques. Keep practising, and don't worry if you don't get it at first. Remember, you can always make a topic here, and we'll be more than happy to help you out.
