Music Theory De-mystified BlogBasic Music Theory Lessons 1

5. How Long Is A Note? Note Values 1

This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

Note Length

In 3. Beats, Tempo And Timing we saw that the length of a note is counted in beats, and that the length of a beat is determined by the tempo. For instance, when the tempo is 60 bpm (beats per minute), 1 beat is 1 second long: for a tempo of 120 bpm, 1 beat is 1/2 second long. Notes can be any length, from a number of beats to a fraction of a beat.

Note Values

Although we count in beats, not all notes are a beat, or even a whole number of beats, in length. Some are longer, some shorter.

The symbols for note length are called note values. How we interpret these symbols depends on the time signature. Time signatures are a subject for a later post, but let me say for now that the most popular time signature, common time, as well as several others, use the crotchet (quarter note) to represent one beat. For the rest of this post I will refer to a crotchet as 1 beat.

Tempo markings often include the note value which represents 1 beat. When a crotchet = 1 beat, a tempo of 60 bpm is indicated as follows:

60 crotchet beats per minute

Funny Names

There is both an English and an American name for each note value. The American name is a fraction based on a whole note equaling the number 1 (1 = whole). The next shorter shorter note is half its length and is called a half note, etc. The “1” refers to 1 bar in the most common time signature of all, 4/4, which has 4 beats per bar.

The English names are old-fashioned names meaning various degrees of “short”, harking back to the original Medieval runes and the gradual evolution of note symbols since.

On the whole I will be using the English names to avoid confusion between a half note and half a beat, etc. However, I recommend learning the American names as well: note values as fractions are the key to interpreting time signatures. In the table below, I have listed both names.

Table of Note Values

The following table lists the most common note values from longest to shortest. The “Usual Length” column shows the length in beats in common time.

Regardless of time signature, the note values are always proportional to each other. Each note value in the table always equals two of the note value below it. A semibreve = 2 minims, a minim = 2 crotchets etc.

The longest note value is called a semibreve because originally there was an even longer note, the breve. The breve is seldom used these days because, at 8 beats long, most time signatures don’t have bars long enough to be able to fit a breve within a bar.

Don’t be daunted by all these symbols. Just focus on the note values that are 1 beat or longer to start with; the ones bordered in green. It’s much easier to add beats together to play longer notes than to divide a beat into halves or quarters. Later you can include quavers, and eventually, semiquavers. Demisemiquavers are much less common.

Stem direction

All but the longest note values have a stem. The stems in the above tables are shown as extending upward from the notehead.

In 2. Notes On a Stave: Pitch we saw that on a stave, the stem’s position and direction depends on where the notehead sits on the stave.

Notes which are on or above the middle line of the stave have their stems on the left of the notehead, extending down.
Notes below the middle line of the stave have their stems on the right of the notehead, extending up.

Tails and beams are always at the outer end of the stem.

Tails and Beams

Notes shorter than a crotchet have a tail. The shorter the note, the more lines make up the tail. When there are several short notes in succession, their tails are joined together to form a beam. Beams generally join the notes in 1-beat groups such as 2 quavers, 4 semiquavers etc. This allows us to see which notes are on the beats, making the music easier to follow. It’s also a cleaner, less cluttered look.

The exception is quavers/ eighth notes, which can be joined together in one-, two- or even three-beat groups.

Below is an example of the different note values, with the shorter notes beamed in groups. In this example the quavers are beamed in groups of 2 beats (4 quavers).

The vertical lines, called barlines, occur every 4 beats, as in the time signature 4/4. In 4/4, a semibreve lasts for 1 bar.

As you listen, you will hear a metronome tick at 80 bpm and repeated notes of the different note values played over it. The use of different note pitches is just for listening convenience.

Notice that the demisemiquavers have only their outer tail beamed in whole beats: the inner tails are beamed in half-beats. This is a popular convention for an even cleaner look but not necessary. Some publishers beam all demisemiquaver tails in whole beats.

Dotted Notes

A note can be any length. For example, we may want a note to last for 3 beats rather than 2 or 4 beats. One option is to use a dotted note.

Each note value can have a dot beside it, to the right. The dot adds half the length of the note value: the dotted note is one and a half times the length of the note without the dot. Effectively, the dot represents the note value directly below the note in the note value table above. For example, a dotted minim (3 beats) = a minim (2 beats) plus a crotchet (1 beat).

The best way to get used to note values is to try to play some written music; notation means nothing until you try to play what you see. Start with something simple such as a children’s song or a melody that you’re very familiar with. If that seems too difficult, please visit my earlier post, 3. Beats, Tempo and Timing, which has some simple timing exercises that might provide a good starting point.

For more, see 7. Rest Values, How To Count Rests. In upcoming posts I hope to provide more information on note length, time signatures and rhythm.

Please feel welcome to like, comment or to share this post. If you have any questions, pleased leave them as a comment and I will respond as soon as I can. If you enjoy my posts and would like to be kept up to date, please subscribe.

The movie is taken from Music Theory De-mystified, my upcoming music theory e-book, due to be released in 2023.

NEXT LESSON: 6. Time Signatures 1 – Simple Time

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

4. Bars, How To Count In Bars And Beats

Structure

When we listen to music, we can generally “follow the music”: we have a sense of where we are within the piece. This is because, other than ambient music, much of what we recognise as music has a structure. Let’s zoom in on a piece from the outside…

Most pieces are made up of sections. In a popular work a typical section might be a verse, chorus or bridge. A classical work might have large-scale sections called movements as well as smaller sections within a movement such as exposition, development and recapitulation.

Within each section, the music is made up of phrases. In the language of music, phrases are the equivalent of phrases in speech. Question marks, full stops and commas all have their musical equivalent.

In music, each phrase is typically made up of a number of bars. Bars provide a way of dividing a phrase up into manageable chunks that we can see and hear.

In Western music culture we seem to be attracted to the number 4. Phrases in many genres are often 4 bars long. In a typical 4-bar phrase, we can feel the phrase get started in the first bar and arrive at a note or chord in the 4th bar. Please note that this is a very general statement for illustration purposes: music is certainly not restricted to phrases of 4 bars, or even of a whole number of bars. Overall, though, many melodies are made up of 4-bar phrases.

Bars

Each bar is made up of a number of beats. Usually all the bars in a section have the same number of beats (but again this isn’t always the case). The boundary between one bar and the next is marked by a vertical line through the stave called a barline. Barlines are convenient markers to help navigate through the notes. Without barlines it would be easy to get lost when trying to read music.

The following example has bars which are 4 beats long:

Bars aren’t just visual: they form part of the structure of the music. Not only can we count the number of bars in a phrase, but we can count the number of beats in a bar. The beats are a reference for where we are in a bar, just as bars are a reference for where we are in a phrase.

A bar can be any number of beats in length but if a bar is too long we feel the need to mentally divide it into smaller chunks. Bars are easiest to feel when they have a small number of beats. Most typically, bars are made up of 2, 3 or 4 beats.

The first beat of a bar has an implied emphasis. This can be articulated in the music by making the note on the first beat of each bar stronger/louder. Even when the music is intended to be played smoothly and evenly, musicians tend to “play” that emphasis in their mind as they count.

Counting in bars and beats

Being able to count or tap to the music in beats and bars is an essential skill for the aspiring musician. In the previous post, 3. Beats, Tempo and Timing, we looked at some basic counting exercises. There we counted to 2, so there were 2 beats in each bar.

Try This…

As a quick exercise, listen to a piece of music you enjoy and tap where you feel the beats might go. Once you settle into the tempo, try counting “1,2”, then “1,2,3” then “1,2,3,4” and see which of these seems to fit the structure of the phrases. As you count, emphasise “1” a little.

If the piece has a rhythmic accompaniment, beat 1 might be emphasised by one or more of the accompanying instruments. For instance, in a typical rock song, the bass drum plays the first beat of the bar. Even without such accompaniment, the right number of beats per bar will “make sense” and fit the phrases, whereas the wrong number will, at times, feel out of step.

As 4 is two lots of 2, the difference between counting to 2 and to 4 isn’t always obvious, but counting to 3 feels quite different than 2 or 4.

Example

Below is the audio only for two simple melodies. One has 2 beats per bar, the other has 3. Listen to both and count “1,2” or “1,2,3”. See if you can tell which is which… (the answer is at the end of this post).

NOTE: Both melodies are at a medium-fast tempo but the tempo is slightly different for each. For each melody, listen first and tap along to the tempo. Only start counting when you feel that you’ve settled in to the tempo.

This post is one of a growing series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here.

Parts of this post, including the movie above, are taken from Music Theory De-mystified, my upcoming music theory e-book, due to be released late 2023.

NEXT LESSON: 5. How Long Is A Note? Note Values 1

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

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Answer: The first melody has 3 beats per bar, the second melody has 2 beats per bar.

3. Beats, Tempo and Timing

Beats and note length

Music is made up of notes and rests of varying length. The musical unit of note length is the beat.

Beats

The duration of a note or rest isn’t written in absolute time: we don’t say a note is 3 seconds or half a second long. Instead, we say it is 3 beats long or half a beat long. We use symbols to indicate the length of a note as a number of beats or a fraction of a beat. For more on the symbols for note length, please see 5. How Long Is A Note? Note Values 1

Tempo

How long a beat lasts depends on the tempo. Think of a clock that doesn’t just tick every second, but that has a dial that lets you set the tick to any speed you like (this actually exists, both as a mechanical ticker and as an app: it’s called a metronome). The speed of the ticking is the tempo. Tempo is measured in beats per minute or bpm.

Each tick represents the start of one beat, so a note that is one beat long and starts on a tick will last until the next tick.

Timing

Notes can start on a beat or between beats. The relationship between the actual notes of a part and the tempo is called timing. Being able to accurately play the note lengths in relation to the tempo is called playing in time.

Timing is also the basis of how musicians can play together in a co-ordinated way. Large ensembles often use a conductor for this purpose. The conductor acts as a human metronome, using gestures to indicate the beats and thus control the tempo.

The tempo of a song is often constant, especially in many modern genres, but it is also possible for the tempo to change within a piece.

Counting the beat

The standard metronome has a range of 40-208 bpm, which roughly parallels the range of human heart rates. This represents our range of experience of what feels like a beat. For example, try counting “1, 2, 3, 4” or “1, 2, 3” along to metronome ticks of various tempi.

Slower than about 40 bpm we can’t “join the dots”; we don’t feel the link from one beat to the next clearly enough to be able to count steadily and we’re tempted to insert the word “and” between counts: of course, this effectively doubles our counting speed, even though we’re using a different word.

Faster than about 200 bpm it becomes hard to feel each count as a proper beat: more like a half-beat: and we want to count every 2nd beat instead.

Some music isn’t played in any set tempo, but a kind of flexi-time. This is formally called rubato but the English word freely can be used instead if you prefer. Rubato is prominent in operatic arias and other “story-telling” genres such as ballads.

Musicianship: the bridge between theory and practice

Often music is thought of as two subjects, theory and practical: the reading and understanding of musical language and learning to play an instrument. There is an important third element called musicianship. Think of musicianship as practical theory, general musical skills independent of the instrument you play.

One aspect of musicianship is timing. Aspiring musicians need to master some basic skills such as being able to play to an external beat, be it from a metronome or other players. Some people have a natural ability to feel the beat, while others need some exercises to develop this ability.

Basic timing practice

The following examples use two note symbols. The first is called a crotchet or quarter note: here it represents a length of 1 beat. The second is called a quaver or eighth note and represents half a beat. More on note length in a later post.

I have already mentioned the first step, the ability to count or play a note steadily to a beat at various tempi. Try counting “1, 2” first, then playing. You can play any note: often it’s easier to play two different notes, depending on your instrument.

If you had trouble counting to the beat as above, practice at a medium tempo such as 90bpm first as it’s neither too slow to feel nor too fast to play.

TIP: Listen to the metronome first before starting to count or play. Let yourself feel the tempo for as long as you like: it’ll be much easier to play in time.

A variation of the above exercise is to tap your foot at a set tempo and play together with your taps.

The next step is to be able to divide a beat into halves. It may help to use the word “and”, at least mentally, to mark the half beats. This makes it feel like you’re counting twice as often, which is certainly easier for slower tempi. The trick is to make sure the halves occur exactly halfway between the beats: at first, they may be uneven. Try playing along to the example below.

Gradually increase the tempo until you can play quite fast.

Once you can play steadily every half beat at a faster tempo such as 120bpm as above, try leaving out the “and”s in your count.

It may take a little while to be able to keep up the steady rhythm of even halves. The more you practice, the more stamina you develop and the longer you can keep the halves even. After a while you’ll wonder how it could ever have been difficult…

Other simple rhythms are also worth learning, such as alternating a whole beat and two half beats or playing only the off-beat halves (the “ands”). This latter is the basis of syncopation (more on this in another post). It’s also worth learning to divide a beat into uneven pairs, long then short, called swing or swung eighths. Effectively, the long note is 2/3 of a beat and the short note, 1/3 of a beat. Another good exercise is to divide the beat into thirds, 3 equal parts.

The above exercises form the basis of many common rhythms.

More timing practice

Playing in time is one of the critical skills required when playing in an ensemble, whether a duo, band, choir or orchestra. Complete musicianship teaching methods are available, covering timing, rhythm, pitching intervals and more.

In my upcoming music theory book, Music Theory De-mystified, I have included two chapters on musicianship. The timing exercises above are taken from one of these chapters. The other chapter is about learning to recognise intervals (the pitch relationship between two notes) by being able to sing or play them.

This post is one of a growing series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here.

Substantial parts of this post, including the movies above, are taken from Music Theory De-mystified, my upcoming music theory e-book, due to be released late 2023.

NEXT LESSON: 4. Bars, How To Count In Bars And Beats

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

2. Notes on a Stave: Pitch

In 1. Note Names, Semitones and Octaves we saw how the notes are named and how far apart they are in pitch. Now let’s look at how they are represented in music notation.

Notes

A note symbol can have up to 3 parts: notehead, stem and tail.

The note’s pitch is indicated by the notehead’s position on a stave.

A notehead can be solid, as above, or hollow but this doesn’t alter its pitch. Hollow noteheads are used to indicate longer notes. Tails are only used for short notes.

You can read more on note length in 5. How Long Is A Note? Note Values 1.

Staves

A stave is a set of 5 lines on which musical notes can be written. The pitch of a note is indicated by the notehead’s vertical position on the stave. The higher the notehead, the higher the pitch.

The note can either sit on a line or between lines (see Notes on a stave, below). Each position represents a letter. Flats and sharps don’t alter this position: A flat, A natural and A sharp all have the same position on a stave. The flat or sharp is indicated by a b or # sign preceding the note.

NOTE: My post is about standard music notation. For certain instruments and genres there are special staves with less or more lines. Different types of noteheads can also be used.

Clefs

A clef tells us which note position represents each letter as well as at which octave. This allows us to adjust the usable part of the stave to fit the range of various instruments.

The most common clefs are the treble clef, also known as the G clef, and the bass clef, also called the F clef.

The curl in the treble clef centres on the G above middle C
The two dots of the bass clef surround the note F below middle C

Various other clefs exist for specific instruments. Even the guitar has a different clef, the tenor clef, which looks like a treble clef but with an “8” attached to the lowest point. The notes look the same as the treble clef but sound an octave lower to suit the guitar’s normal range.

Notes on a stave

Here are the naturals for 2 octaves, starting in the bass clef then continuing in the treble clef.

Note that there is a curly bracket at the left which joins the two staves. This indicates that the staves are used together, as one larger stave, known as the great stave or grand staff. The great stave is useful for keyboard instruments such as the piano, as piano’s range is much too large to be represented on one stave. Also, a pianist’s left hand typically plays bass notes and the right hand plays treble notes.

Stem Direction

The stem goes down from the notehead for higher pitches and up for lower notes.

When the notehead sits on or above the middle line of the stave, the stem is on the left side of the notehead and goes downwards.
when the notehead sits below the middle line of the stave, the stem is on the right side of the notehead and goes upwards.

Ledger lines

Middle C is actually one line above the stave on the bass clef, It’s also one line below the stave on the treble clef. A short line called a ledger line is drawn to indicate this.

Ledger lines can be used to extend the range you can write on a stave, both above and below the stave. Many instruments have a range larger than what fits within a stave.

Try These…

1 Write down the note names of the following notes:

2 On some manuscript paper, write a treble clef on one stave and a bass clef on the stave below it. Now write the following notes on each stave. Use ledger lines when needed:

G on the lower part of the stave
C in the stave
A at or above the top of the stave
D at or below the bottom of the stave
C above the stave
G below the stave
E on the upper part of the stave
F at or below the bottom of the stave

Answers at the bottom of this post.

Graphics taken from The Tiny Music Theory Book, a short, easy to read guide to the essentials of music theory and notation, available here.

NEXT LESSON: 3. Beats, Tempo and Timing

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

Answers to Try These…

1. Note Names, Semitones and Octaves

If note names mean nothing to you, start here…

In my posts:

A PIECE is any musical work.
A PART is one instrument’s component of a piece.
An ENSEMBLE is any combination of instruments collaborating to perform a piece, be it one person singing and playing, a band, choir or orchestra.

Note names

Most musicians are familiar with the note names A to G. After G comes A again and the pattern continues repeating from the lowest pitches to the highest.

A B C D E F G A B C etc.

Over the audible pitch range there are many A’s, many B’s and so on.

From one A to the next is an octave, as is from any letter to the next instance of the same letter.

Octaves

Notes which are an octave (or several octaves) apart enjoy a special relationship. When played together, the higher note blends in to the lower note. If they’re perfectly in tune (that’s for a later post), the higher note blends in so well that it almost merges inside the lower note. Even when played one after the other, what we hear sounds more like a change in register (or voice) than a different note.

Try this on your instrument. If you can play two notes at once or play one and sing the other, the effect will be the clearest, but you can still tell by playing one after the other.

Now try combinations of two different notes, such as A and G or A and C. None feel as closely connected as when they’re an octave apart (or a unison; two notes of exactly the same pitch).

In musical terms, in an ensemble, any part can be played an octave higher or lower without clashing with the other parts. All chords or harmonies will still fit. It is because of this relationship that notes which are octaves apart can, and do, share the same note name.

Intervals

The difference in pitch between one note and another is called an interval. A to the next A, an octave, is an interval, A to G is an interval, F to C is an interval.

Intervals can be measured in octaves and semitones. Each octave is divided into 12 musically equal intervals called semitones. This gives us 12 different notes, the 13th being an octave. The semitone is the centimetre (or inch) of pitch.

On a piano, 1 semitone is the interval between consecutive keys, regardless of the key’s colour.
On a guitar, 1 semitone is the interval from one fret to the next (or from an open string to the first fret).

We started with the letters A to G, followed by A etc. that’s 7 letters, the 8th being the octave of the first (as it happens, octave means 8th). So how do 7 letters add up to 12 semitones?

Not all letters are 1 semitone apart: in fact, most are 2 semitones apart. This is how the letters are spaced:

A . B C . D . E F . G . A
2 1 2 2 1 2 2 = 12

This means that 5 of the 12 different notes (per octave), the ones represented here by dots, have no name.

On a piano keyboard, all the named notes are white keys. You can see when two white keys are 2 semitones apart because there is a black key to represent the so far un-named note between them.

Piano keyboard layout showing naturals for 1 octave

On a guitar, you can find the named notes by starting on an open string, then following the above pattern by skipping a fret for every 2-semitone interval. The dots above represent the frets you skip.

Guitar fingerboard layout, A string, showing naturals for 1 octave

The named notes are called naturals. The un-named notes can be described as being 1 semitone higher or 1 semitone lower than the nearest natural.

Sharps and flats

Any natural can be raised by 1 semitone by adding the sharp symbol, #.
Any natural can be lowered by 1 semitone by adding the flat symbol, b.

For instance, the note between A and B could be called A# (A plus 1 semitone) or Bb (B minus 1 semitone).

This may seem confusing: we’ve gone from having no names for some notes to having two names. Fear not. For now, either name will do. The most common note names in general terms are:

A Bb B C C# D Eb E F F# G G# or Ab

Once we look at the notes in the context of a piece of music, the choice of note names will matter but by then it will be quite obvious which names to use. The correct note names for a piece are based on its key, a subject for a future post.

The graphic below shows how any natural can be raised by 1 semitone by adding a sharp or lowered by 1 semitone by adding a flat, resulting in two possible note names for most notes. Notice that even some of the naturals have an alternate name, although their use is relatively uncommon in most keys.

In my next basic post we will look at how note pitches are written on a stave.

Try These…

How many semitones between the following pairs of notes? (count up from the first note until you reach the second note of the pair):

A to C
A to C#
A to E
A to G
Bb to F
B to F
C to A
C# to A
D to Bb

Answers at the end of this post.

This post is one of a growing series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here.

NEXT LESSON: 2. Notes on a Stave: Pitch

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

Answers to Try These…

A to C = 3 semitones
A to C# = 4 semitones
A to E = 7 semitones
A to G = 10 semitones
Bb to F = 7 semitones
B to F = 6 semitones
C to A = 9 semitones
C# to A = 8 semitones
D to Bb = 8 semitones