Schleifer

Slid in

The Schleifer consists of two or three small notes that are played quickly before the main note and, as it were, slide into it. C. P. E. Bach describes it in his “Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen” (1753): the two-note Schleifer comes before a leap, fills the interval and is always played swiftly. The three-note one has the shape of a turn in contrary motion and need not be fast; Bach also calls it a “mournful manner” on slow notes.

Schleifer and grace note

Like the grace note the Schleifer comes before the main note. The difference lies in the number and the character: the grace note is a single note, the Schleifer a small group that draws a line to the main note. According to the source the Schleifer consists of two or three, according to others of three or more notes. Direction and size of step are also described differently. Often it leads stepwise to the main note.

Slide and Schleifer

In English the Schleifer is called “slide”. The same word names on the guitar a different phenomenon, the gliding from note to note (see “Slide”). The two must not be confused: the Schleifer is a notated ornament of small notes, the guitar slide a gliding of the hand on the fingerboard. Leopold Mozart too uses “Schleifer” in his violin treatise for several notes joined by a slur, that is in another sense.

Common mistakes

• Shifting the rhythm: The Schleifer is a lead-in, not a change of rhythm.
• Stressing all notes equally: The main note carries the weight.
• Confusing Schleifer and slide: One is an ornament in notes, the other a playing technique.