Grace Notes!

These are the two words that describe those little musical enhancements that one can see on notated music and hear when music is performed. Having their origins in classical music, I first met up with grace notes during my childhood piano lessons. They are cute little notes in their printed appearance and appear to be flying around in the song (my description of them). I hear them and play them a lot in jazz pieces and have found, particularly when one of my students asks me how and what I'm doing when I demonstrate a musical passage, that I use them also in blues, as well. There they feel and sound like cousins or some other close relative to the classical and jazz grace notes. I'm going to look up the official definition in my music dictionary so that I can give the best possible credit to these graceful, often very playful, lovely little notes. OK ... here it is according to the Wm. Collins Sons "Concise Dictionary Of Music -- printed in Great Britain": "Grace Note = ornamental note used to decorate or embellish melody. Normally printed in smaller type". Well, OK, that's accurate but I don't think it really speaks to the spirit of grace notes. I mean grace notes would be very conspicuous if they were absent. When actually playing them on piano or keyboard, these notes are touched in a different way than "regular" notes. They require a much lighter touch. And they "grace" the musical piece, giving it charm and enriching its character.

The reason I thought of writing this little post about grace notes, is to lead into my thoughts about grace itself ... a "state of grace", a "grace period", religious "grace" which usually equates to "salvation". Grace, then, is something extra and special that is given (my definition). My Oxford Dictionary says "a delay or postponement granted as a favor not a right".

So that's how one could choose to look upon life ... with appreciation and thanks and a sense of wonder. And the reason for this post is to present my note about grace, my little Grace Note. Often we are given opportunities to insert grace notes (delightful embellishments) into life, especially when we do something nice for somebody else, not because we are required to, but because we choose to.