Ben Dunnett

Working out the length of a note

Learning how to calculate the length of a note is easy if you know the three questions to ask about its appearance. Know these questions and reading note lengths is easy.

When finding out ways to read sheet music you'll need to have the confidence to figure out the length of a note. Luckily, you can easily work out the duration of a note by contemplating 3 questions about a note’s appearance:

1. Is the notehead filled in?
2. Does the note possess a stem?
3. Does the stem have a tail?

These 3 features combine to signify just how long a note should be held for.

The following is an overview of this:

A semibreve is without any head filled in, no stem and no tail.
A minim doesn't have any head filled in, has a stem, but no tail.
A crotchet features a head filled in, has a stem, but no tail.
A quaver has got a head filled in, a stem and a tail.
A semiquaver consists of a head filled in, a stem and 2 tails.
A demisemiquaver comes with a head filled in, a stem and 3 tails.

What about the dots?

At times you're going to spot a dot right after a note (do not confuse this with a dot on top of or directly below a note - this is something completely. A dot put following a note makes the note fifty percent lengthier . For this reason, if a dot is written after a crotchet (normally lasting 1 beat), the note will now be worth one and a half beats (1 added to a half). When a dot is placed just after a minim (ordinarily lasting 2 beats) then it is going to now be lasting 3 beats (2 added to 1). In the instance that a dot is put right after a quaver (commonly worth half a beat) then it would now be held for three quarters of a beat (half plus a quarter).

Ties

Often you will notice a curved line joining up a couple of notes with each other. In the event that the two notes are the identical pitch then these two notes will be attached together rhythmically (in the instance that they’re not the same exact pitch then this is something different). So, a tie that connects 2 crotchets to each other (normally worth 1 beat each) will indicate that the note will be held down for 2 beats.

Beams

Many folks get puzzled by beamed notes - two notes whose tails are joined to each other. They are really extremely simple. Should you write a pair of quavers next to each other, as an alternative to writing 2 standalone notes with 2 tails you join the tails with each other to create a beam. You can do a similar thing with 2 semiquavers by connecting both the pairs of tails together with each other to generate 2 beams. More than 2 notes may be connected with beams.The easy rule of thumb to consider is that a beam cannot go across the midsection of a bar.

Conclusion

Calculating the length of a note is a crucial aspect of learning how to read sheet music. However, hopefully you can see that working out the length of a note is pretty easy to do if you know the questions to ask.

Article Tags: Head Filled, Each Other

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