Music notation glossary · Ornaments
Mordent
a quick dip below and back
As a Unicode character — to paste into text, spreadsheets or chat. Whether it appears depends on the font.
In the score
What it means
A zigzag with a vertical stroke: main note, note below, main note — all within the attack. Without the stroke it is an upper mordent, which goes above.
Ornaments
The same thing downwards: once briefly to the neighbour below and straight back. The sign carries a vertical stroke through the middle of the zigzag. That is the whole difference from the upper mordent, and it is easy to miss.
Related pages
Anotona does this for you
Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.
See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.