Just wondering how hard people find to play them.My piano teacher came round the other day and tried to sight-read "Corant" which is Grade 6 piano and couldn't pull off the Mordants.I had to show her.Sure,i was trained ,when i was a kid in Yorkshire ,by pedigree teachers ( i know the tricks of the trade ) and have very narrow fingers so i find playing mordants naturally easy but you would have thought a qualified teacher would have been able to play them !!??.
I have always been told that basic Mordants are the fastest notes played 3 time faster and treat them as if they are very fast trills.
What does everyone else think ?
Do you find them hard or am i in the wrong job ??!!

I can play the basic simple mordents, but I cannot play the ones in Corant. I can't keep the constant left hand quavers going.

You have to make sure you're fingers move at lightening speed

For most mordants with the num 3 at the top of the semi quavers

I was scared of mordants & trills for years but having successfully managed Corant in the exam with shaking hands I feel a lot more confident about playing them now

I'm doggedly continuing with Corant, determined to get the thing up to speed. I've shied away from pieces with too many ornaments in the past, as I found them much harder than on the flute, but have steeled myself to learn this piec (which I like) and overcome my phobia.

Mordents are single-turn trills, by the way, and are not especially fast. It's the overall tempo of the piece that dictates the speed, not the type of ornament.

Easier said than done

Hmm, I've never found mordents as hard as trills. I can move my fingers fast enough for a single movement, but when I have to sustain it in trills...

I find mordants easier than trills once I my fingers do them automatically but to sight-read I need to think harder than with a trill, although with trills you have to count...hmm...

Ditto that. Up to 4 notes I'm great with but more and my fingers tend to get stuck

Yeah, me too!! My teacher says I have to keep my hand very relaxed and then I'll be able to trill for ever and ever (lol)! But I'm not a very relaxed person lol! I find trills to be easier on violin than on piano for some reason...?

Could be because you're only moving 1 (2?) fingers at the same time instead of alternating fingers. I find Cello trills easier than Piano trills for that reason.

I also find mordents are a lot easier on Piano than on Cello. (unco fingers! )

The only problem i have with Corant is when i turn the page i have totaly lost it 5 bars later.
As for "sight reading corant is hard ",i did it within 1 hr !

I can only trill and play mordants convincingly with my right hand.

Ill give a tip:

You have to completely relax your hand. check that your hand is at the correct level. And then play VERY slowly, staying relaxed. Slowly bring up the speed until you get the highest speed with a RELAXED hand. play at that speed for a while until you can go faster.

i'm guessing you're talking about piano? mordants occur in clarinet pieces don't they?

Mordants appear in all sorts of music.

I think we're talking about piano here.