You know what a grace note is right? It’s that note before the note; an ornament that is short and leads into the next note, usually. For keyboardists, they’re that little quick note we add before a pickup or start of a phrase to show that we’re badasses. While originally intended to be an ornament for the phrase, note or figure, grace notes have turned into a bad habit for some keyboardists, and in invitation for craptastic noise for others.
I’m ranting because I’ve heard too many crap grace notes from piano players and keyboardists this month. Some budding keyboardists are doing it backwards. They’re accenting the grace note, leaving the written note hanging! In a sense, the original note is the grace note. Even worse, some are pedalling the grace notes on piano, holding them through to the written note. The killer for me is when the grace note is so long that the player actually alters the musical phrase. I won’t say any names, but I’ve heard some pretty ungraceful grace notes lately, some so bad that I want to stick a pencil in my ear.
And, while I’m still hot, I want to call out those people that sequence a piano or keyboard part and then quantize the grace notes. Wake up! This is even happening in commercial music. I recently pulled out a Boyz II Men cover album (don’t laugh, it has a great acoustic-ish cover of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”). One track on the album reeks of quantized grace notes. What gives, people?
