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Node:Grace notes, Next:Glissando, Previous:Text scripts, Up:Ornaments
Grace notes
Grace notes are ornaments that are written out, but do not take up any
logical time in a measure. LilyPond has limited support for grace notes.
The syntax is as follows.
\grace musicexpr
When grace music is interpreted, a score-within-a-score is set up:
musicexpr has its own time bookkeeping, and you could (for
example) have a separate time signature within the grace notes. While in
this score-within-a-score, you can create notes, beams, slurs, etc.
Unbeamed eighth notes and shorter by default have a slash through the
stem.
\relative c'' {
\grace c8 c4 \grace { [c16 c16] } c4
\grace { \property Grace.Stem \override #'flag-style = #'() c16 } c4
}
![[picture of music]](lily-652785203.png)
A grace note expression has duration 0; the next real note is assumed to
be the main note. If you want the note to appear after the main note,
set Voice.graceAlignPosition to 1.
BUGS
At present, slurs or ties from the grace notes to the following notes
are not supported. Also, nesting \grace notes is not
supported. The following may cause run-time errors:
\grace { \grace c32 c16 } c4
Since the meaning of such a construct is unclear, we don't consider this
a loss. Similarly, juxtaposing two \grace sections is
syntactically valid, but makes no sense and may cause runtime errors.
Ending a staff or score with grace notes may also generate a run-time
error, since there will be no main note to attach the grace notes to.
The present implementation of grace notes is not robust and generally kludgey. We expect it to change after LilyPond 1.4. Syntax changes might also be implemented.
Please send GNU LilyPond questions and comments to lilypond-user@gnu.org.
Please send comments on these web pages to lilypond@packages.debian.org
Copyright (c) 1997--2001 Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.