Note values

In the previous lessons we learned to read which note we play. Now it is time for the second part of the score: how long each note lasts. Notation has specific symbols for this, each with a name and a precise time value.

01The foundation: the beat and the quarter note

The unit of duration in music is the beat. When you tap your foot evenly along with a piece, every time it touches the floor is one beat.

All the note values are defined in relation to this unit. The reference note is the quarter note: it lasts one beat. All the other values come from it, as multiples or subdivisions:

• A half note lasts two quarters (2 beats).
• A whole note lasts four quarters (4 beats).
• Two eighth notes together last one quarter (1 beat).
• Four sixteenth notes together last one quarter (1 beat).

(These are the American names, which we use throughout the site. You may also meet the British ones: semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver and semiquaver, for the same five values.)

02The five note values

See how they all relate in one picture. Every row has the same total duration as the others, but is divided into a different number of pieces:

03Rhythm syllables: how to feel the note values

Notice that every value in the picture comes with a syllable: ta-a-a-a for the whole note, ta-a for the half, ta for the quarter, ti-ti for a pair of eighths, and ti-ri-ti-ri for four sixteenths. These are the rhythm syllables: a tool for feeling duration instead of merely counting it.

The syllable itself "lasts" as long as the note should last. When you say "ta-a-a-a" out loud, stretching the "a", you get the feel of four beats without having to count in your head. The method was devised by the Hungarian educator Zoltán Kodály in the early 20th century, and has been used in conservatories all over the world ever since.

04Example

See how note values and syllables combine in a real 4/4 measure. All the notes are G (2nd line), so the attention stays on duration rather than on the note's identity: