Grace note

Two grace notes at different speeds

The symbol library describes the appoggiatura as a small note before a main note that is played on the beat and takes half of the main note's value. In contrast to the acciaccatura it is played in full. Before a dotted note the long grace note, by common teaching, takes two thirds of its value: a dotted quarter note with a grace note then becomes a quarter-note grace note plus an eighth-note main note. It is the most important ornament of the Baroque and the Classical period.

The acciaccatura is the “crushed note”, from the Italian acciaccare, to crush. It is played as fast as possible before the main note and released at once, like a brief friction.

In the sheet music archive

Piano

• Sonata facile, 1. Satz: Allegro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 545 · piano · 4 pages

  On page 2, there are two small grace notes in bar 22 and one at the start of bar 23 before main notes of the melody, all three with a stroke through the flag, together with the dynamic marking p and a hairpin. Here you can study the sign well in the notation.

A grace note and the suspension

A long grace note sounds like a suspension: a note that falls on the beat and resolves into the main note. The difference lies in the way it is written. The suspension is written as a full note in the bar, the grace note is engraved small.