Music notation glossary · Ornaments
Trill
rapid alternation with the note above
As a Unicode character — to paste into text, spreadsheets or chat. Whether it appears depends on the font.
In the score
What it means
tr above the note: it alternates quickly with the next note up in the key. Whether the trill starts on the main note or the upper one depends on the period — in baroque music usually the upper.
Ornaments
The main note and the neighbour above it alternate as fast as it stays clean. The sign does not say how many alternations there are; written out here it is four pairs, and the note value stays exactly the same.
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.