Hi Simon, When dealing with older music, the grace notes are normally referred as appoggiaturas and the slashed grace notes as acciaccaturas. In general lines, an appogiatura is played with its full value of duration, which is then subtracted from the main note. It is easier to see an image of it:
notation: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Appoggiatura_notation.png/320px-Appoggiatura_notation.png execution: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Appogiatura_common_practice_interpretation.png One classic example of use of appoggiaturas is in Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca: <http://lilypond.1069038.n5.nabble.com/file/n152873/Mozart.png> One of the reasons Mozart uses this kind of notation throughout his works, instead of writing something like the staff in the bottom of the example above, is because the first notes are dissonant to the harmony. * * * An acciaccatura is generally interpreted as to be played as fast as possible. So here is an example: notation: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Acciaccatura_notation.png/320px-Acciaccatura_notation.png execution: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Acciaccatura_execution.png/320px-Acciaccatura_execution.png When it comes to contemporary music, both types of grace notes tend to be interpreted as "play as fast as possible". That said, the slashed graces are the most common type of grace notes I see on scores from the 1950s to today (at least in the kind of music I listen to). I hope it helps somehow. Regards, Gilberto -- View this message in context: http://lilypond.1069038.n5.nabble.com/So-slashed-beamed-grace-notes-tp152817p152873.html Sent from the User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user