Note values and rests
A note’s shape tells you how long to hold it: hollow or filled, with or without a stem, with flags or beams. Each value is half the one before, so a whole note is two halves, four quarters, eight eighths or sixteen sixteenths.
The note values
| Note | Name | Beats in 4/4 | Rest | In a bar of 4/4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note semibreve | 4 | 1 | ||
| Half note minim | 2 | 2 | ||
| Quarter note crotchet | 1 | 4 | ||
| Eighth note quaver | ½ | 8 | ||
| Sixteenth note semiquaver | ¼ | 16 |
The names in grey are the British ones. A hollow head is a whole or half note; a filled head with a stem is a quarter; each flag (or beam joining notes together) halves it again: one for an eighth, two for a sixteenth.
Counting them
In 4/4 time there are four beats in a bar, and a quarter note gets one. Count the beats out loud, “1 2 3 4”, and fit the notes to them. Shorter notes need the in-between syllables: eighths are “1 + 2 +” (“one and two and”), sixteenths “1 e + a” (“one ee and ah”). Each example below is one bar, with the counting under the notes; Listen plays it with a click on every beat.
Dotted notes
A dot after a note adds half its value again. A dotted half note lasts 2 + 1 = 3 beats, which is why it fills a bar of 3/4. A dotted quarter lasts 1 + ½ = 1½ beats and usually comes with an eighth note to fill the beat: the long-short rhythm of countless tunes.
Rests
Every note value has a rest of the same length: a silence you count just as carefully. The whole rest hangs below a line and the half rest sits on top of one (“a hat”). The whole rest also means a whole bar’s silence in any time signature. Lift your hand on a rest, and keep counting through it: the most common rhythm slip is coming in early after one.
Quiz: how long is it?
Ten notes and rests, dotted ones too. How many beats does each last in 4/4 time?
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Reading rhythm faster
Fluent readers don’t add up note values one at a time; they recognise whole beats: two eighths, four sixteenths, a dotted quarter and an eighth. Practise reading rhythms on their own, then in pieces: the eighth-note, dotted-rhythm and rest levels of the free sight-reading exercises bring each in on its own.
Questions
How many beats is a whole note?
Four beats in 4/4 time. A half note is two, a quarter note one, an eighth note half a beat and a sixteenth note a quarter of a beat.
What does a dot after a note do?
It adds half the note’s value again. A dotted half note is 2 + 1 = 3 beats; a dotted quarter note is 1 + ½ = 1½ beats.
How do you count eighth notes?
Say “and” between the beats: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +. The numbers fall on the beat, and the “and” halfway to the next one. Sixteenths add “e” and “a”: 1 e + a 2 e + a.
What is a crotchet?
The British name for a quarter note. A semibreve is a whole note, a minim a half note, a quaver an eighth note and a semiquaver a sixteenth note.
Rhythm you can feel
Pianomi, a free sight-reading app for piano, has a rhythm-reading path of its own, and grades the timing of every note you play from your MIDI keyboard.