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Part 5:
Embellishing
218
A grace note is like a little preview note before the main note.
Grace notes are typically written as small eighth notes, with a line drawn through
the stem and flag. The grace note can be on the same tone as the main note, or
on an adjoining tone. (You play whatever note the grace note is on.)
Turns
A
turn
is an ornament used primarily in Baroque and classical music. In a turn
the neighboring notes turn to the main note, “turning it around.”
Let’s look at how a turn works: When you see the turn mark (which looks like a
line turned around on itself), you play the diatonic note above the main note,
then the main note, then the note a step below the main note, and then the
main note again. Here’s how it looks on paper, and how you play it in practice:
A turn “turns around” the main note.
When you’re playing a turn, you have a bit of latitude for how fast you actually
play it. You can play a turn as written in the example, as a pure mathematical
subset of the note’s noted duration; or you can whip through the turn really
quickly, landing back on the main pitch until the note is done. It’s all a matter
of interpretation.
Trills
A
trill
is a way to extend a single note by alternating between two neighboring
tones. In particular, you alternate between the main note and the note one step
above, like this:
If you’re unsure
how to play a turn
in a piece of
music, ask your
conductor for the proper
interpretation.
Tip
Play a trill with a whole bunch of neighboring notes.
As with turns, there are many different ways to play a trill. The most common
approach is to alternate between the two notes as rapidly as possible, although
technically a trill can have a
preparation
in which you play the main note straight
before you enter into the “shake.” (You can also terminate the trill—or just trill
right into the next note.)
Chapter 17:
Special Notation
219
Glissandos
Whereas turns and trills alternate between two or three neighboring notes, a
glissando
packs a lot more notes into a short space. To be precise, a glissando is
a mechanism for getting from one pitch to another, playing every single pitch
between the two notes as smoothly as possible.
Depending on the instrument, a glissando can be a continuous glide between
the two notes (think trombone) or a run of sequential chromatic notes (think
piano). Glissandi (
not
glissandos!) can move either up or down; typically, both
the starting and ending notes are specified, like this:
On the piano, you can
also “cheat” a glissando
by playing only the white
keys between the top and
bottom tones—which lets
you play a glissando with
a stroke of your hand.
Note
Glissando up—and down.
Arpeggiated Chords
When you want an instrument to play a chord as an arpeggio, but you don’t
want to write out all the notes, you can use the symbol called the
role.
The role
indicates that the instrument is to play an arpeggio—but a rather quick one.
This squiggly line tells the musician to play the written notes from bottom to
top, in succession, and to hold each note as it is played. The effect should be
something like a harp playing an arpeggiated chord, like this:
The quick and easy way to notate an arpeggiated accompaniment.
Getting Into the Swing of Things
The last bit of notation I want to discuss concerns a feel. If you’ve ever heard
jazz music, particularly big band music, you’ve heard this feel; it’s called
swing.
Traditional popular music has a straight feel; eighth notes are played straight,
just as they’re written. Swing has a kind of triplet feel; it swings along, all
bouncy, percolating with three eighth notes on every beat.
What’s that, you’re saying—
three
eighth notes on every beat? How is that possible?
It’s possible because swing is based on triplets. Instead of having eight eighth
notes in a measure of 4/4, you have
twelve
eighth notes—four eighth-note
triplets. So instead of the basic beat being straight eighths, the first and third
beat of every triplet combine for a
spang-a-lang-a-lang-a-lang
kind of rhythm.
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