adjust alignment of grace notes

[rjawad1]

i have several places where the spacing of the grace notes doesn't look right. the grace notes are overlapping with the bass too much in the picture. how do i adjust it so that the grace notes come after the bass notes?

[Peter Thomsen]

… so that the grace notes come after the bass note …

It is not clear to me what you mean.

Here are two examples:

A: Big measure width, bass notes evenly spaced

B: Small measure width, bass notes un-evenly spaced

A or B?

[Shinohara 1027]

Hello, rjawad1.

In principle, grace notes are considered to have no rhythmic duration, and unless there is a collision, other voices do not need to leave space for the grace notes. This is handled in a similar way to accidentals.

However, in addition to the rules of music engraving, there may be performance interpretation issues similar to the one you raised.

The following image compares different editions of the same piece from IMSLP. Depending on the publisher, the handling of the ornamentation varies. In fact, there is a disputed interpretation regarding the starting position of this ornamentation, making it a great example of how musical notation can influence performance.

I also reviewed Peter's suggestions. However, in Option A, evenly widening the spacing may result in an uneven distribution of other measures within the same system. In Option B, as mentioned earlier, as long as there is no collision, the original spacing of other voices should not be compromised for the sake of grace notes.

So here, I would like to propose two solutions as well. Firstly, to keep the original notation unchanged and add asterisks above it, with performance annotations written at the bottom of the page. Secondly, if it is your own composition and you want to explicitly indicate the performance technique, such as playing on the beat, you can use the method shown in the image below.

However, perhaps the notation I presented is not exactly what you are looking for. It is just a suggestion to provide some ideas for reference. In general, unless there is a specific reason, it is recommended to follow the principles mentioned above and stick to the original style. I hope the above information can be helpful to you

Sincerely
廿七

[rjawad1]

thanks a lot for the advice. the chopin examples were very helpful. i was thinking something like option A that Peter gave, but after looking at the nocturne examples, maybe i'll just leave it alone.