6.5.7 Grace notes

Grace notes are ornaments that are written out. The most common ones are acciaccatura, which should be played as very short. It is denoted by a slurred small note with a slashed stem. The appoggiatura is a grace note that takes a fixed fraction of the main note, and is denoted as a slurred note in small print without a slash. They are entered with the commands \acciaccatura and \appoggiatura, as demonstrated in the following example

     
     b4 \acciaccatura d8 c4 \appoggiatura e8 d4
     \acciaccatura { g16[ f] } e4

Both are special forms of the \grace command. By prefixing this keyword to a music expression, a new one is formed, which will be printed in a smaller font and takes up no logical time in a measure.

     
     c4 \grace c16 c4
     \grace { c16[ d16] } c2 c4

Unlike \acciaccatura and \appoggiatura, the \grace command does not start a slur.

Internally, timing for grace notes is done using a second, ‘grace’

timing. Every point in time consists of two rational numbers: one denotes the logical time, one denotes the grace timing. The above example is shown here with timing tuples

The placement of grace notes is synchronized between different staves. In the following example, there are two sixteenth grace notes for every eighth grace note

     
     << \new Staff { e4 \grace { c16[ d e f] } e4 }
        \new Staff { c4 \grace { g8[ b] } c4 } >>

If you want to end a note with a grace, use the \afterGrace command. It takes two arguments: the main note, and the grace notes following the main note.

c1 \afterGrace d1 { c16[ d] } c4

This will put the grace notes after a “space” lasting 3/4 of the length of the main note. The fraction 3/4 can be changed by setting afterGraceFraction, ie.

afterGraceFraction = #(cons 7 8)

will put the grace note at 7/8 of the main note.

The same effect can be achieved manually by doing

     
     \new Voice {
       << { d1^\trill_( }
          { s2 \grace { c16[ d] } } >>
       c4)
     }

By adjusting the duration of the skip note (here it is a half-note), the space between the main-note and the grace is adjusted.

A \grace section will introduce special typesetting settings, for example, to produce smaller type, and set directions. Hence, when introducing layout tweaks, they should be inside the grace section, for example,

     
     \new Voice {
       \acciaccatura {
         \stemDown
         f16->
         \stemNeutral
       }
       g4
     }

The overrides should also be reverted inside the grace section.

The layout of grace sections can be changed throughout the music using the function add-grace-property. The following example undefines the Stem direction for this grace, so that stems do not always point up.

\new Staff {
  #(add-grace-property 'Voice 'Stem 'direction '())
  ...
}

Another option is to change the variables startGraceMusic, stopGraceMusic, startAcciaccaturaMusic, stopAcciaccaturaMusic, startAppoggiaturaMusic, stopAppoggiaturaMusic. More information is in the file ly/grace-init.ly.

The slash through the stem in acciaccaturas can be obtained in other situations by \override Stem #'stroke-style = #"grace".

Commonly tweaked properties

Grace notes may be forced to use floating spacing,

See also

Program reference: GraceMusic.

Bugs

A score that starts with a \grace section needs an explicit \new Voice declaration, otherwise the main note and the grace note end up on different staves.

Grace note synchronization can also lead to surprises. Staff notation, such as key signatures, bar lines, etc., are also synchronized. Take care when you mix staves with grace notes and staves without, for example,

     
     << \new Staff { e4 \bar "|:" \grace c16 d4 }
        \new Staff { c4 \bar "|:" d4 } >>

This can be remedied by inserting grace skips of the corresponding durations in the other staves. For the above example

\new Staff { c4 \bar "|:" \grace s16 d4 }

Grace sections should only be used within sequential music expressions. Nesting or juxtaposing grace sections is not supported, and might produce crashes or other errors.

Other languages: French.