Note values and rests

Note values tell you how long each note lasts. The shape of the note, not its height on the staff, is what sets the duration.

Beat and time signature

Music has a steady pulse, like the tick-tock of a clock: the beats. A bar of 4/4 groups the beats in fours, and in that time signature a quarter note gets one beat.

The top number says how many beats are in each bar and the bottom one which note value gets one beat (4 = quarter note).

Note values and how long they last

Each note value lasts half as long as the one before. The whole note is hollow with no stem; the half note is hollow with a stem; the quarter note is filled in. From the eighth note on, each value adds a flag: the sixteenth note has two, the thirty-second note three. (In British English they are called semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, semiquaver and demisemiquaver.)

Rests

Every note value has a rest that lasts the same. The two that get mixed up the most: the whole rest hangs from the fourth line (it is heavier, so it hangs) and the half rest sits on top of the third.

A trick: the whole rest is worth more, so it is "heavy" and hangs like a hole; the half rest is worth half and sits like a hat.

The dot

A dot next to a note adds half its value.

Equivalences

Since each note value is half the one before, twice as many fit at every step down:

1 whole note = 2 half notes = 4 quarter notes = 8 eighth notes = 16 sixteenth notes = 32 thirty-second notes.

To work out how many fit, divide the values: a half note (2) holds 4 eighth notes (½), because 2 ÷ ½ = 4.

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By Joaquin Varela · Updated November 1, 2026