The most basic and most common length of note is the quarter note, which looks like this:
It’s a black note-head on a basic stem, (or stick).
A quarter note usually represents one beat.
As musicians, we can decide for ourselves exactly how long a beat should be, but a common duration for a quarter note is about one second.
Here are 4 quarter note Ds.
Eighth Notes
Notes which are twice as fast as quarter notes are called eighth notes. They look like this:
Notice that although the eighth note has a black note-head like the quarter note, it also has a small tail on the right side of its stem.
Here are 8 eighth notes, F sharps and Gs.
(To find out why there is only one sharp symbol, read Lesson 3 – Accidentals, and to find out how to group these notes with beams, read Lesson 7 – Beaming).
An eighth note represents half a beat.
Listen to the quarter notes and eighth notes together:
Half Notes
Half notes are twice as long as quarter notes, or if you prefer, half notes last for 2 beats.
Half notes look like this:
Notice that half notes look like quarter notes, but their heads are white, not black.
Here is a half note B and a half note A, in the bass clef:
Listen to the quarter notes, eighth notes and half notes together:
Whole Notes
Whole notes are twice as long as half notes, or if you prefer, whole notes last for 4 beats. Whole notes look like this:
Because whole notes don’t have stems, there’s only one way to draw them.
Here is a whole note D in the bass clef:
Listen to the quarter notes, half notes, eighth notes and whole notes together:
Sixteenth Notes
Sixteenth notes are twice as fast as eighth notes, or 4 times faster than quarter notes. Four sixteenth notes take up the same amount of time as 1 quarter note. So, a sixteenth note is equal to a quarter (fourth) of a beat.
A sixteenth note looks like this:
We can join together two or more sixteenth notes like this:
Sixteenth notes look like eighth notes, but they have two tails where eighth notes have one.
Here are some sixteenth notes in action:
And here is the finished product!
