I am ready for the next challenge: adding my own touch to the pieces I play.
The BIG question now is how do I figure out WHICH ornament to use WHEN and WHERE. (getting to understand them and develop a feel)
I do know how to play the ornamentations but not how and where and when to use them…never saw that explained.
If there is ANYBODY on this list who could explain this well to me, I would be forever grateful if this would work out 
berti
Oh boy, Berti, I hope you get a lot of good answers. This is something I always wanted to ask. I live in an area with no sessions and no known teachers. It’s sad (and maybe a little scary) to admit that C&F and the internet are my best resources. 
Thanks for asking a great question!
~Judy
Hi Berti66, that’s a very good question, but a little difficult to answer simply.
Ornamentation is your contribution to the tune and should be personal to you. Having said that, the possibilities are constrained by the structure of the music, essentially you use the ornamentation patterns to add emphasis to a note to point the rhythm.
Consider a Jig, you might try putting a short role (SR) on the first note of the bar and a cut on the note that starts the second half of the bar, or try it the other way around.
Another thing you might try is giving the long notes emphasis with a SR, and replacing any three 1/8 notes that start and finish on the same note with a long role (LR).
Obviously things are a bit different in different time signatures but the same sorts of patterns occur.
Good luck
John S
The best way to learn is to listen to a lot of ITM recordings! There are many collections and individual CDs of tinwhistle recordings.
Everyone develops their own style in time, but a few suggestions.
When you get two consecutive notes of the same pitch, separate with a cut or tap.
On a dotted crotchet in a jig, you can do a long roll, or a triple tongue (sometimes called a treble).
On a crotchet, a short roll will fit. In a Reel a triple tongue would fit.
When going up to a top note, you can cut above and come down to it.
Similarly when dropping to a low note, tap below and come up to it.
Don’t be tonguing every single note! Tongue some and slur some. On fiddle, I would usually follow a crotchet with two slurred quavers. In a reel or hornpipe, where a bar contains 8 full quavers a pattern of 1 2 3 (456) 7 8 with 456 slurred is useful. An alternate is 1 (234) 5 6 7 8. On a whistle you’d probably slur more than this.
In polkas, a slide can sound good, say if you have an “e f#” pair of quavers. try sliding from the e to the f#.
Just a few ideas. The most useful and natural for me is the cut, I almost always cut rather than tongue or change bow stroke on two consecutive notes of the same pitch and length. You’ll see this a lot in Irish jigs.
Which finger to cut with? Some people teach a cut with the upper ring finger, but this only works up to a point. Brian Finnegan always cust with the top first finger. After all it’s down the most, and a cut is really a blip of sound and not a true note.
Oh, and don’t over do the ornaments. Too many is often worse than none at all.
You can read, listen, and practice on Bro. Steve’s site - the ornamentation section. Although he’s explaining how to do them, it also gives you a feel for where they should be placed.
http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/
I agree wholeheartedly with Martin: Listen! Check out the tunes from some of the greats (and the transcriptions with ornamentation noted) on Bro. Steve’s site too.
Oh, and if you’re interested in on-line lessons, including lots on ornamentation, Scoiltrad is great.
http://www.scoiltrad.com/index.asp
Susan
Best thing is to realise what ornamentation is, why it’s there and what it’s trying to achieve.
For starters simple things like:
*separation of notes of the same pitch cE{G}E
*Rhythmic emphasis {c}BAG {B}AGE
There’s no chart or formula though that will tell you what should g owhere all the time. WHat you do will influence what you do in the enxt bar, formulaic playing is never interesting. It’s about what you want to achieve in a tune. Listen to good players and adapt what suits you, learn the language and find your voice.
Some listening material and discussion of tunes from real life are at:
http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/index.html
Get yourself a copy of Slowdowner and use this to listen to specifics…sometimes when a piece is played fast I find it hard to figure out just what the ornamentation is.
Blah blah blah my website blah: http://www.geocities.com/feadanach.
blah blah great website btw blah blah 
i’m not very good, so my fingers slip all over the place. i just tell people that it’s ornamentation and they look impressed and sleep with me! (in my mind)
roflol!!!
That’s how I do it too, I just at regular(and unregular!) intervals slip in a cut, tap or roll wherever I get a chance and voila, sounds more complicated and respect-giving.
This recipe transforms well onto bagpipes as well…