… what are flicks, cuts and rolls? Sounds like something to do with making sandwiches.
Mmm.. sandwich…
They’re different ornamentations common to the tinwhistle. I’m not even going to pretend like I can explain them well, because I can’t.. but here’s a good website to get you started.
http://www.rogermillington.com/siamsa/brosteve/
Ornamentation has been talked about alot lately, on the “Thoughts on learning” thread and others.. the general consensus seems to be don’t bother with them until you have the basics down. Alot of recordings you’ll hear, on Clips and Snips or whatever, have oodles of ornamentation. You can’t expect you’ll be able to do that stuff, or throw those things into pieces, right away though. And often tunes sound better for the lack of extra rolls, crans, etc.
It’s a good idea to get a head start on just practicing them, though. 
Yes it was reading the thoughts and learning thread, and that’s what triggered the question. I’m not sure I’m ready to play them, but I did think I ought to know what they are - even from a listening point of view.
Yes, definitly. As soon as I learned that those quick little sounds on my Joannie Madden CD were actual ornamentations, not just whistle glitches, it gave my listening a whole new level. “Oooh! Maybe this whistle thing is even harder than I thought!” And it is. But what a blast too. 
And then you have to figure out exactly what people are talking about. For instance, there is a ‘turn’ which I think is close to a roll. I would think ‘flick’ and ‘tap’ are the same thing (very briefly striking the note lower than the one you intend to actually play), like an ultra quick grace note.
Tax, one of the things that makes Irish music sound like Irish music is that flow of notes from one to the next. The easiest way to do that is to slur from note to note to note across the phrase. BUT, what happens if you have two of the same note? Play one long note? That’s a possibility. Tongue in between the two? Another possibility. Ah, what about very quickly…VERY quickly, so quick you don’t register it as a note, just as a sound, you sneak another note in there by flicking your finger over a lower hole? (or equally quickly open and close a higher one?) Voila. Tap (or cut). And the two similar notes flow, yet are separated.
And then we have the roll…three notes, separate the first and second with a cut, the second and third with a tap. The infamous roll.
Those are the simple places for these embellishments that are almost necessary to play the tunes and sound Irish. Then you’re faced with where else do you want to put them to make the tune a bit personal. This is where tastes comes in, and having very little, I don’t do it much )
Yeah…a turn is the same idea as a roll notewise, but it’s more rythmically even…rather than sounding like one note separated into three by cuts and taps, it sounds like five (or more) notes of equal value. So if a roll is “Dah-blah-blah” (thanks Br. Steve!), a turn is “Dah-dee-dah-dee-dah.” At least that’s how I learned it.
Redwolf
Around here the second part of a two-part tune (or the change from the first to second part) is often referred to as the “turn”. Nothing to do with ornamentation just a little trivia!
All the best,
Wes
…too late! Woa! Rim shot, please! (Just kidding, ignore me, everyone else does)
John
On 2003-02-18 10:41, whamlyn wrote:
Around here the second part of a two-part tune (or the change from the first to second part) is often referred to as the “turn”. Nothing to do with ornamentation just a little trivia!All the best,
WesSame here. It used to confuse me when the Morris teacher would ask for a “B” or “part of a B” (first time she asked me for a “B”, I obligingly played a B note, to both our confusion!), because I think in terms of “The tune (A part) and the turn (B part).”
But I’m used to the turn as an ornament as well…crops up occasionally in vocal music.
Redwolf