Acciaccatura
An acciaccatura is like a shortened appoggiatura and is written like the appoggiatura, but
with a line through it....
and sounds....- Other Little Tricks
Slides
A slide (or glissando or portamento) means the the performer swoop up/down in pitch from
one note to the next rather than jumping straight to the note. This is indicated by a straight
diagonal line. So, the following music...
(The abbreviation “Port.” is optional)....tells the performer to swoop up from the 1st note to the 2nd note.
This is fairly easy to do on most instruments, but on a piano this involves running your
thumb nail quickly along the keys (piano glissandi are commonly heard in rock and roll
music where the piano player does a glissando from the highest note on the piano down to
the middle of the piano).
Harmonics
String instruments have the ability to play harmonics. These are indicated by the following
symbol....