17

Special Notation

In This Chapter

◆Discover how to notate phrasing with slur marks

◆Find out how to write and play embellished notes, including turns, trills,

and grace notes

◆Learn how to play music with a swing feel

◆Figure out how to fit words to music

There are some aspects of music theory that don’t fit neatly within traditional
categories. Still, you need to know about them, so I have to include them some-
where in this book.

That somewhere is this chapter. It’s kind of a grab bag of more advanced tech-
niques, mainly relating to notation, that you need to have at your fingertips—
even if you won’t use them every day.

So settle back and read about some of the oddball aspects of music theory, and
that popular musical style we call swing.

Throwing a Curve

When you’re writing music, you sometimes need to connect two or more notes
together. You might literally connect them together to form a single, longer
note; or you might simply want them played together as a smooth phrase. In
any case, whenever you connect two or more notes together, you use a notation
effect that looks like a big curve—and is called, alternately, either a tieor a slur.

Ties

You learned about ties back in Chapter 5. When two notes of the same pitch
are tied together—either in the same measure, or across measures—the notes
are played as a single note.

Chapter