Each music note written on the stave has a duration (length) as well as pitch. It is the design of the note that tells you its duration, in the same way as the position on the staff tells you the pitch. So each music note on a stave gives you two pieces of information, pitch and duration. This page focuses on the duration of each note.
Whole Note (Semibreve)
The Whole note is the longest music note in general use today. It is an open note with no stem. The duration of the whole note is 4 quarter notes.
Half Note (Minim)
The Half note duration is 2 quarter notes. It differs from the whole note in that it has a stem, although it is still open. For students I liken this stem to the line in the middle of the ½. This also helps them remember that 1 half note is worth 2 beats (in 4/4 timing, which is what they are usually working in when learning this).
Quarter Note (Crotchet)
The quarter note has become the de facto standard 1 beat music note. This has happened as the 4/4 time signature is the most popular (with 3/4 and 2/4 following close behind) and quarter notes have a duration of 1 in these time signatures. It is also roughly in the middle of the most used notes in the Rhythm Tree, making the quarter note the ideal candidate for ensuring whole notes don't become too long to count, and shorter, popular notes such as eighth and sixteenth notes aren't impossible to count in terms of them being fractions of a note. The quarter note changes from the half note as it is filled in, as opposed to empty.
Eighth Note (Quaver)
The eighth note is worth ½ of a Quarter note. It may also be considered as a one beat note in 3/8 and similar timings, the 8 on the bottom of the time signature giving the clue that you are counting in eighth notes. This is the first note in the rhythm tree to have a flag. The flag is the name for the 'tail' added to the eighth note. Eighth notes may be a single as shown on the left, or joined together with beams.
It is common to see eighth notes joined into sets of 2 to make one beat. Eighth notes may also be grouped in 3s, 4s, 5s, or even 6s depending on the time signature. Remember, however, that no matter how many eighth notes are joined, each one is worth half a quarter note.
Sixteenth note (Semiquaver)
The Sixteenth note is worth ¼ of a Quarter note. It may be beamed together in the same way as the eighth note. It changes from the eighth note by having an additional flag. Look at the picture and you see a double flag at the top of the stem. This is how you tell a note is a sixteenth note.
Sixteenth notes may be beamed together in the same way as Eighth notes. When you see sixteenth notes beamed together each note has a double flag. Here is an example of 4 Sixteenth notes beamed together, they are also common in groups of 2.
Mix and match different music note values
Eighth and sixteenth notes (and other music notes with flags) may be joined together. The key to knowing which note you are dealing with is very simple look at the number of beams joined to the stem of the note. By counting the beams joined to the stem of the note you will always know what type of note you are looking at. In the examples below you can clearly see how this works.
In this example there are 2 Sixteenth notes (2 beams touching the stem) joined ot an Eighth note (1 beam touching the stem)
In this example there is 1 Eighth note (one beam touching the stem) joined to 2 Sixteenth notes (2 beams touching the stem)
This is a note grouping that often confuses people, but it needn't! It is simply 1 Sixteenth note (2 beams on the stem) joined to an Eighth note (1 beam on the stem) joined to another Sixteenth note (2 beams on the stem!)
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