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Crotchets
The most basic and most common length of note is the crotchet, which looks like this:
 or this
It’s a black note-head on a basic stem, (or stick).
A crotchet usually represents one beat.
As musicians, we can decide for ourselves exactly how long a beat should be, but a common duration for a crotchet is about one second.
Here are 4 crotchet Ds.
Quavers
Notes which are twice as fast as crotchets are called quavers. They look like this:
 or this 
Notice that although the quaver has a black note-head like the crotchet, it also has a small tail on the right side of its stem.
Here are 8 quavers, 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)
A quaver represents half a beat.
Listen to the crotchets and quavers together:
Minims
Minims are twice as long as crotchets, or if you prefer, minims last for 2 beats.
Minims look like this:
 or this 
Notice that minims look like crotchets, but their heads are white, not black.
Here is a minim B and a minim A, in the bass clef:
Listen to the crotchets, quavers and minims together:
Semibreves
Semibreves are twice as long as minims, or if you prefer, semibreves last for 4 beats. Semibreves look like this:
Because semibreves don’t have stems, there’s only one way to draw them.
Here is a semibreve D in the bass clef:
Listent to the crotchets, minims, quavers and semibreves together:
Semiquavers
Semiquavers are twice as fast as quavers, or 4 times faster than crotchets. Four semiquavers take up the same amount of time as 1 crotchet. So, a semiquaver is equal to a quarter (fourth) of a beat.
A semiquaver looks like this:
 or this 
We can join together two or more semiquavers like this:
Semiquavers look like quavers, but they have two tails where quavers have one.
Here are some semiquavers in action:
And here is the finished product!
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