Note values and rests

A note's shape tells you how long it lasts relative to the beat. Nothing here is measured in seconds — that is what tempo is for. Double the tempo and every value halves, together.

Note	Name	Length	Rest
𝅝	Whole note	4 beats	𝄻
𝅗𝅥	Half note	2 beats	𝄼
𝅘𝅥	Quarter note	1 beat	𝄽
𝅘𝅥𝅮	Eighth note	½ beat	𝄾
𝅘𝅥𝅯	Sixteenth note	¼ beat	𝄿

Reading the shapes

The distinctions are small and deliberate:

• Hollow head, no stem — whole note.
• Hollow head with a stem — half note.
• Filled head with a stem — quarter note.
• Filled head, stem, one flag — eighth note.
• Two flags — sixteenth.

When eighths or sixteenths sit next to each other, their flags are replaced by beams — the horizontal bars joining them. A beam is purely visual; it changes nothing about the durations. Beaming is grouped to show where the beats fall, which is what makes beamed rhythms easier to read than a row of separate flags.

Rests work identically

Every note value has a rest of the same length. A bar of silence in 4/4 is a whole rest; a beat of silence is a quarter rest. Rests are not gaps in the notation — they are notated, counted and as much a part of the rhythm as the notes.

Dotted notes

A dot after a note adds half of its own value.

• Dotted half = 2 + 1 = 3 beats
• Dotted quarter = 1 + ½ = 1½ beats
• Dotted eighth = ½ + ¼ = ¾ of a beat

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

A second dot adds half of the first dot's value again, but you will meet that far less often.

Ties

A tie is a curved line joining two notes of the same pitch. They become one sound lasting the combined length.

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.

Do not confuse a tie with a slur, which looks similar but connects different pitches and means play them smoothly.

Triplets

A triplet fits three notes into the space normally taken by two. Three eighth-note triplets occupy one quarter-note beat. They are marked with a small 3, usually with a bracket.