Ordinario

What it means

Ordinario (Italian for "ordinary", also ord. or modo ordinario) is an instruction to return to the normal way of playing after a special technique. It appears above all in string parts, for instance after sul ponticello (at the bridge), sul tasto (over the fingerboard) or col legno (with the wood of the bow). Sometimes normale or naturale is written instead.

Musical use

The instruction is common above all in orchestral music of the 19th and 20th centuries, when special playing techniques were used more often. It cancels the previously required technique and denotes the return to the usual bowing place, bow and tone color. For strings this is often a place between bridge and fingerboard.

Ordinario should be distinguished from senza sordino, which means taking off the mute, and from the direction normale, which means the same but is used less often.

Performance practice

At ordinario, change to the normal way of playing at once and listen to the difference in sound. Practise the change in transitions, otherwise the sound stays with the previous technique for too long.