Note values: music symbols explained

18 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.

𝅝Semibrevealso called Whole note

The longest note in common use: four beats in the usual four-four bar. An empty oval with no stem.

𝅗𝅥Minimalso called Half note

Two beats. An empty oval with a stem: half a semibreve, which is where the American name comes from.

𝅘𝅥Crotchetalso called Quarter note

One beat, and the note most music is counted in. A filled oval with a stem.

𝅘𝅥𝅮Quaveralso called Eighth note

Half a beat. A filled note with one flag, or beamed to its neighbours by a single bar.

𝅘𝅥𝅯Semiquaveralso called Sixteenth note

A quarter of a beat. Two flags, or two beams when joined up.

𝅘𝅥.Dotted note

A dot after a note adds half its length again: a dotted minim is three beats, a dotted crotchet is a beat and a half.

Tie

A curve joining two notes of the SAME pitch into one longer sound. Struck once and held: the second note is never played again.

3Triplet

Three notes in the time of two, bracketed and numbered. The commonest way of borrowing a rhythm from another metre.

Breve

Twice a semibreve: eight beats in four-four. Rare, and drawn as an oval with lines either side.

Demisemiquaver

A thirty-second note: an eighth of a beat, with three flags or three beams.

Hemidemisemiquaver

A sixty-fourth note, with four beams. Almost always part of a written-out flourish rather than a rhythm to count.

Double dot

Two dots after a note: the first adds half the value, the second adds half of that. A double-dotted crotchet is a beat and three quarters.

Dotted rhythm

Long-short, over and over: a dotted note followed by the short one that fills the gap. The rhythm of a French overture and half the hymn book.

Beam grouping

How the beams divide a bar. They are drawn to show where the beats are, so a correctly beamed bar can be read at a glance.

Tuplet bracket

The bracket and number that says this group is borrowed: five in the time of four, seven in the time of eight.

Tie across the barline

A tie carrying a note over into the next bar. The note is struck once, and its length simply crosses the line.

Note head

The oval itself. Filled for a crotchet and shorter, open for a minim and longer, and its position on the stave is the pitch.

Flag

The tail on a stem. One flag halves a crotchet, two halve it again, and beaming replaces them when notes are joined.

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