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Every pop-styles keyboard player has a selection of well-rehearsed ‘ornaments’ (or  ‘grace note figures’) – to decorate a melody with. The Snake Dance melody, with its oriental flavour, is an ideal place to start building your collection.

Here is a performance which, for demonstration purposes, has ornaments on nearly every note – far more than you would ever actually play.

Even with the music, at normal playing speed it’s not easy to see what’s going on.

Here's a slow-motion performance video.

More practical is this slow-motion 'worm's-eye view' video you might find useful.

Pick one or two 'ornaments' at a time and start working on them. Don't try to get them all into your performance at once!

An ornamented performance with thirds

Here's an ornamented with-thirds performance.

The ornamented thirds video performance has an introduction, grace notes and a novelty ending – all elements which you can incorporate into your own variations.

Now consolidate your repertoire with some Snake Dance Medleys.