User manual

Table Of Contents

General placement conventions for grace notes

Grace notes function like normal notes in many ways, but there are some specic conventions

about their stem direction, position relative to noteheads, and the placement of stem slashes.

Grace notes appear stem up by default, except when there are multiple voices with grace notes

in a single staff, in which case grace notes in the lower voices appear stem down. This affects the

placement of slurs relative to grace notes.

Grace notes are always positioned before a notehead, even if they are intended to be played on

the beat rather than before the beat. They are normally placed after a barline, so they can be

positioned directly before the notehead to which they are attached. However, groups of three or

more grace notes can be placed before the barline so that the note of the

rst beat in the bar is

not pushed too far from the barline.

Grace note stem slashes appear at the beginning of a grace note beam if multiple grace notes

can be joined by a single beam at the same rhythmic position. If there is a single grace note, the

slash appears across the stem, and its

ag if applicable, and extends either side of the stem.

Adding accidentals causes their spacing to readjust so that the accidentals are clearly legible,

similar to normal notes.

Articulations can be added to grace notes wherever they are most clearly legible, which is most

likely outside the staff. Dorico Elements automatically places articulations on the stem-side of

grace notes, and outside the staff if the stem or beam is within the staff.

Slurs relative to grace notes

By default, slurs starting on grace notes and ending on tie chains end on the rst note of the

tie chain. You can change the position of individual slurs relative to tie chains, including those

starting from grace notes.