Introducing Note Lengths

Now we need to get into note lengths—how many beats each note lasts. Let's first have a look at the quarter note, which lasts for one beat, and is written with a black (or “filled in”) notehead, and a long stem attached:

Play these quarter notes on your piano, using the thumb of the right hand. Count out loud “1, 2, 3, 4” as you play (holding each note for one beat).

So why is this called a quarter note (I hear you ask)? Well, we already said that music most often uses the 4/4 time signature (i.e., has four beats per measure). So, in this case, the note lasting for one beat is also a quarter of the measure. Next, we'll look at the half note, which lasts for two beats (or half of the 4/4 measure), and is written with a white (or “empty”) notehead, and a long stem attached:

Play these half notes on your piano, using the thumb of the right hand. Count out loud “1, 2, 3, 4” as you play (and play the notes on “1” and “3,” holding each note for two beats).

You've probably noticed that both the quarter notes and half notes have stems, in this case to the right of each note, and going upwards. However, once the notehead gets to the middle line of the staff or above, the stem is then on the left of the note and goes downwards.

Next, we have the whole note which lasts for four beats and is written with a white (or “empty”) notehead, and no stem:

Play this whole note on your piano, using the thumb of the right hand. Count out loud “1, 2, 3, 4” as you play. Start playing right on count “1,” and hold it for four beats.

Similar logic is again behind the naming of the whole note: it lasts for four beats, and is also the whole of a 4/4 measure.

Back in Jolly Olde England (where I'm originally from, before I moved to California in the 1980s), they have these rather odd names for different note durations. Instead of quarter note they say “crotchet;” instead of half note they say “minim;” and…wait for it… instead of whole note they say (… drum roll… ) “semibreve.” Gotta love those Brits… anyway, be thankful that you're using the good ol' American system. It's way more logical and easy to use!