Chapter 3 - Supporting Gracenotes

Now that that you have gotten a good feel for the G gracenote, and you are feeling good about the concept of gracenotes in general, we will dive into some supporting gracenotes.

You can play a gracenote with any finger, and at some point down the line every imaginable gracenote will be seen. The G gracenote is our primary gracenote because it has a high pitch (thus creating an accented sound when played), and is easily played using your index finger. Other gracenotes will be lower in pitch (thus generally softer sounding), and so they’ll be perfect to fill in the space between G gracenotes.

Supporting gracenotes will rarely ever fall on a beat, because the G gracenote is always there, showing that primary rhythm point. Instead, the supporting gracenotes will fall in between the beats, adding texture and character, and accentuating sub-divisions. Another thing to note as you explore this chapter is that a supporting gracenote will rarely ever occur without a G gracenote happening before it. Try to get used to these patterns as early on in your piping as possible.