Dotted notes and ties

Note values halve as you go down the ladder: whole, half, quarter, eighth. That gives you 4, 2, 1 and ½ beats — but nothing in between. Dots and ties fill the gaps.

A dot adds half again

A dot after a notehead adds half of that note's own value.

The dotted quarter followed by an eighth is one of the most common figures in all music. Learn it as a shape rather than recalculating it each time.

Rests take dots too, and the arithmetic is identical: a dotted half rest is three beats of silence.

Double dots

A second dot adds half of what the first dot added — a quarter of the original value. A double-dotted half note is 2 + 1 + ½ = 3½ beats. You will meet these occasionally in classical music and almost nowhere else.

A tie joins two notes into one

A tie is a curved line between two notes of the same pitch. They become a single sound lasting their combined length. You play the first and hold through the second.

Ties exist because bar lines are non-negotiable. A note lasting six beats in a 4/4 piece cannot be written as one symbol across a bar line, so it is written as a whole note tied to a half note in the next bar.

They also handle lengths a dot cannot express — five eighth notes, say — and they keep rhythms readable by letting each bar show its beats clearly.

A tie is not a slur

They look almost identical and mean completely different things.

If the noteheads are on the same line or space, it is a tie. If they move, it is a slur. That check is quick and always works.