User manual

Table Of Contents

Grace notes

Grace notes are notes without a xed duration, which are intended to be played quickly. They

are scaled-down versions of normal notes, and are commonly shown with a slash through their

stem.

Grace notes with slashed stems are known as acciaccaturas and are often played very fast.

Grace notes without slashed stems are known as appoggiaturas and are often played slower

than acciaccaturas. In Baroque music, appoggiaturas are often understood to last for a

specic

duration, based on the prevailing meter and the rhythmic value of the notehead to which they

are attached. Therefore in

Dorico Elements, slashed and unslashed grace notes are handled

differently in playback.

Grace notes do not take up space rhythmically, as they are intended to be tted into the space

before the notehead to which they are attached, which is the notehead immediately to their

right.

There can be multiple grace notes before a notehead. If there are two or more grace notes

attached to the same notehead, and they have a rhythmic value that shows a ag on the stem,

such as eighth notes (quavers) and 16th notes (semiquavers), they are automatically beamed

together.

Multiple grace notes before notes

In Dorico Elements, grace notes are scaled to 3/5 the size of a normal notehead by default and

are affected by your note spacing settings. There is a separate option specically for grace note

spacing.

You can add notations, such as slurs and articulations, to grace notes in the same ways as to

normal notes, and you can transpose grace notes after they have been input.