Flags are only added to the stems of filled noteheads.Īdditionally, there are three ways to decrease a note’s value by half:.Unfilled noteheads may or may not have a stem, but filled noteheads always have stems.Noteheads can be filled in (black) or unfilled (white) quarter notes and shorter durations are filled in.Several additional aspects of Example 2 should be noted: The relative relationships between common note values. Just as a whole pizza divides into two halves, four quarters, eight eighths, etc., a whole note divides into two half notes, four quarter notes, eight eighth notes, and so on. Each note value can be divided into two smaller values, as seen in Example 2. Note values are hierarchical in other words, their lengths are defined relative to one another. There are many common note values in Western musical notation. Noteheads with stems, beams and flags labeled.

As you’ll recall in the chapter titled Notation of Notes, Clefs, and Ledger Lines, notes may contain several different components, as seen in Example 1: Example 1. Note Valuesīroadly speaking, rhythm refers to the duration of musical sounds and rests in time. The next several chapters will focus on the temporal facets of rhythm and meter, starting in this chapter with the basic note and rest values in this notation system. Music is a temporal art-in other words, time is one of its components-so organizing time is essential for Western musical notation.

A tie connects two or more notes of the same pitch.Subsequent dots add half the duration of the previous dot. A dot increases the duration of a note by half.British terms for note and rest values are different from American terms.

Common rest values include the whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest, and sixteenth rest.Common note values include the whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, and sixteenth note.Notes consist of several different components, including a notehead, stem, beam, and flag.

Quarter rests