Note and rest symbols

Like every note value, its length is relative: it is twice a half note and four times a quarter note. In 4/4 that comes to four beats, a whole bar.

In British English it is a semibreve. The breve, twice as long again, survives mainly in older and choral music.

The open head is what separates it from a quarter note, whose head is filled in. The stem can point up or down; that depends only on where the note sits on the staff, never on its length.

In British English it is a minim.

It is the usual beat unit, which is why the bottom number of most time signatures is 4. Two quarter notes make a half note; four make a whole note.

In British English it is a crotchet.

A single eighth note carries a flag on its stem. Two or more in a row are usually joined by a beam instead, grouped to show where the beats fall — in 2/4 in twos, in 4/4 in twos or fours. The beam changes how the music looks, not how long the notes are.

In British English it is a quaver. Its silent partner is the eighth rest.

Four sixteenth notes take the time of one quarter note, so they are usually beamed in fours, one group per beat. Each extra flag or beam halves the value again: three flags or beams make a thirty-second note.

In British English it is a semiquaver.

In 4/4 it lasts four beats. It also serves as the whole-bar rest: centred in an otherwise empty bar, it means rest for the entire bar whatever the time signature, even 3/4 or 6/8.

It hangs from its line; the half rest sits on one.

It is the same block as the whole rest, drawn at the same size, so its position is the only difference: on top of the middle line instead of hanging from the fourth.

Like every rest, it is counted, not skipped: the beat goes by in silence, and the next note comes in on time.

It often stands at the start of a beat, so the note after it falls on the 'and' — one of the simplest ways to write syncopation.

Each extra hook halves a rest's value, just as each extra flag halves a note's: one hook for an eighth, two for a sixteenth, three for a thirty-second.

The dot sits to the right of the head, in a space; a note on a line usually has its dot moved up into the space above. A dotted quarter is a quarter plus an eighth, one and a half beats. A dotted half is a half plus a quarter, three beats.

Rests can be dotted the same way. The dot changes length only: it says nothing about how the note is attacked.

The second note is not played again; its length is simply added to the first. Ties are how a note lasts across a bar line, or makes a length that no single note value can, such as a half note tied to an eighth.

A tie always joins the same pitch. If a curve joins different notes, it is a slur.

Three triplet eighth notes take one beat in 4/4, where two ordinary eighth notes would. The 3 is often printed with a bracket; on a beamed group it may stand alone.

Triplets are one kind of tuplet. A 5 over five sixteenth notes, for example, fits five into the time of four.