The vast majority of traditional Irish flute players use a wooden, simple-system flute. This is a conical-bore, simple-system wooden flute of the type favoured by classical flautists of the early 19th century, or to a flute of modern manufacture derived from this design (often with modifications to optimise its use in Irish Traditional Music. The modern playing technique within Irish Traditional Music has much in common with tin whistle technique. This involves using a number of ornaments to embellish the music, including cuts, strikes and rolls. Common ornaments and articulations include: Cut and strike (or tap) Cut and strike Cut is rapidly lifting and putting down a finger; Strike is rapidly hitting and lifting an open hole with a finger. Rolls A roll is a note with first a cut and then a strike. Alternatively, a roll can be considered as a group of notes of identical pitch and duration with different articulations. Cranns Cranns (or crans) are ornaments borrowed from the Uilleann piping tradition. They are similar to rolls except that only cuts are used, not taps or strikes.
