Grace Note - Use in Music

Use in Music

In bagpipe music there is extensive use of grace notes. Indeed, because the chanter is not tongued but supplied by a continuous air source from the bag, grace notes are sometimes the only way to differentiate between notes. For example, inserting a grace note between two crotchets (quarter notes) played at the same pitch is the only way to indicate them as opposed to them sounding like a single minim (half note). Various multiple grace note ornaments are formalised into distinct types, such as doublings, throws, and birls. A single grace note is played on the beat as is the first grace note of a complex ornament such as a doubling. The ornament taorluath is an exception: its last grace note is played on the beat. Gracenotes are typically played as short as possible by lifting the fingers quickly and a short distance off the chanter.

In modern editions of Western classical works, editors often seek to eliminate the potential for different interpretations of ornamental symbology, of which grace notes are a prime example, by converting a composer's original ornamental notation into literal notation, the interpretation of which is far less subject to variation. Most modern composers, although by no means all of them, have followed this trend in the prima facie notation of their works.

In the context of Indian classical music (Hindustani (North Indian), Carnatic (South Indian)) some specific forms of notes (swara-s) fulfill the technique of playing a note (swara). Such ornamentic (Sanskrit: Alankar or Alankara) in Indian Classical Music is important for the proper rendition and essential to create the beauty of a raga. Some notes are linked with its preceding and succeeding note; these linked notes are called Kan-swars (= grace notes). Kan-swars deal with so called touch notes. sparsh means "touch" in Hindi (Devangari). These grace notes (acciaccatura) are often referred to as sparsh-swars. Kan-swars or sparsh-swars can be executed vocally and on instruments in three ways:

1. using a swift short glide (meend or ghaseet),
2. as a Sparsh (technique of playing a note on a plucked stringed instrument, the movement of notes is ascending) and
3. as a Krintan (the opposite of a Sparsh, movement of notes is descending).

In a book on Sitar compositions, Kan has been defined as 'fast deflection which can be approached while descending or ascending'. The act of Kaṇ being repeated twice, thrice or four times in a single stroke of mizrāb is called Krintan.