Note how the treble clef shape seems to curl around the second line. This clef assigns the note G to the second line. The treble clef is commonly used for high-pitched instruments like the flute and the violin. In the following example, we show a staff with a treble clef. If you want to explore more complex note lengths then you may want to have a look at my lessons on dotted notes and tied notes.Now that we know how to read rhythms, how do we then read musical notes? There are a few guidelines about beaming notes in traditional music notation.įor example, eighth notes should not be beamed together across the middle of a bar of 4/4 whilst shorter notes are beamed together in beats. You can do the same with 2 sixteenth notes (semiquavers) by joining both the pairs of tails together to make 2 beams…. So, all the notes in the score below are the same length…. If you put 2 eighth notes (quavers) next to each other, instead of writing 2 separate notes with 2 tails you join the tails together to make a beam. Many of my students get confused over beamed notes – the good news is that they are actually very simple. If a note is on the middle line then the stem can be drawn either upwards or downwards depending on the surrounding notes and whether they have predominantly upwards/downwards stems. If a note is below the middle line of the stave then the stems are written upwards from the note (starting on the right hand side of the notehead). If a note is above the middle line of the stave then the stems are drawn down from the note (starting on the left hand side of the notehead). Note length symbols with stems can be written with the stems going up or down depending on where they are placed on the stave: If you add more tails to the stem, the note gets progressively shorter. If you un-fill the notehead and remove the stem the note length gets longer. You can see that the quarter note (crotchet) has a filled notehead, a stem, but no tail. Here is a summary table of the note lengths and how they relate to each other: You may also come across notes with 3 tails (hemidemisemiquavers), but these are very rare! Note Lengths Summary Sixteenth notes or semiquavers are half the value of the eight notes and so there are 16 of them in a whole note. The symbol for an Eighth note is a quarter note with an added tail: As a result, 8 eighth notes are equivalent to 1 whole note. You can see that the notehead is filled in:Įighth notes (or quavers) are half the value of a quarter note. Here is the symbol for the quarter note/crotchet. Therefore, 4 quarter notes add up to one whole note. The half notes symbol is a notehead with a stem:Ī quarter note (or crotchet) is a quarter of the value of a whole note. Therefore, 2 half notes add up to the same length as one whole note. Half Note or MinimĪ half note (or minim) is half the value of a whole note. You need to be careful not to assume that note durations are always linked to beats so clearly as this depends on what time signature a piece of music is written in. Whilst this is true in time signatures such as 4/4, 2/4 and 3/4 it is not always correct – e.g. You will often hear it said that a whole note or semibreve is worth “4 beats”. The whole note (or semibreve) is the simplest note to write in music as it is a notehead with no stem/tail and it is not filled in: Let’s have a look at the most common note lengths. These 3 variables combine to tell you how long a note should be held for. When learning how to read sheet music you need to ask yourself 3 questions about a note’s appearance in order to work out its length…. Let’s explore the most common note lengths – whole notes, half notes, quarter note, eighth notes and sixteenth notes.
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