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Topic: Grace note vs Thirty-Second Duration notes (Read 2643 times) previous topic - next topic

Grace note vs Thirty-Second Duration notes

I use NWC to do transcribed solo for saxophone song.  I wonder when look at some professional solo sheet, some phrasing are same but sometime they use Grace notes, but in another phasing they use Sixteenth/ Thirty-Second Duration notes.

For my understanding grace note has no value. If I use NWC to play back, which sounds almost same (grace note,  Sixteenth/Thirty-Second Duration).  What should I use?  Or the transcriber just count on 4 beats on each bar, pack all the notes to match 4 beats each bar (in case if 4 beats are full, they use grace note)?

Re: Grace note vs Thirty-Second Duration notes

Reply #1 –
Hi Jackie.  In NWC, all 'grace' notes are of the same value no matter what note you designate as a grace note.  If you use sixteenth/thirty-second notes you must subtract their value from the base note to keep the timing correct.  Grace note on the other hand automatically 'steal' time from the base notes, so you don't have to change the base notes.  So, if your base note is a whole note and you use two sixteenth notes you must change the whole note to 7/8ths of a whole note to keep the time right.  Two grace notes can be added to a whole note and you can still use the whole note because the grace notes take their time from that note.

I hope this makes some sense to you.

Have fun - The Hankster

Re: Grace note vs Thirty-Second Duration notes

Reply #2 –
That's means it doesn't matter to use grace note,  sixteenth or thirty-second notes. It just mathematic calculation.

However, when just listening to the original song, how we identify which are Grace note, which are sixteenth or thirty-second notes?  I'm confusing because both are playing very fast.  For my understand:

Grace Note =  A cosmetic purpose, just like a bridge to connect some notes gether

Sixteenth or Thirty- Second notes = Actual notes

Can you agree this?

Re: Grace note vs Thirty-Second Duration notes

Reply #3 –
Not really, Andy, grace notes are actual sounded notes, not just cosmetic.  the only difference is that grace notes take time from the next note on the staff so that two grace notes plus a whole note still equals a whole note for timing purposes while if you were to put in two 32nd notes you would have a whole note plus a 16th for timing.

Hope that makes more sense.

Hank