Music Theory: Note Duration

One of the first things you should already realise about rhythm is that it’s made up of notes of different durations (different lengths). You might have a long note followed by two short notes, or three short notes in a row followed by two very long ones…etc…etc…

Well, how do you write this all down? I mean, it’s not just important so that you can transcribe and tab stuff out- this’ll help you to visualise rhythms in your head too! If you can “write down” in your head, the rhythm you’re thinking of, then you’re in a much better position to remember and play them (or maybe even to describe the rhythm of a song to your bandmates at 3am over MSN…). Right?

Rhythm Notation

So here’s how it works…

We originally had the longest note, the breve (ironically from the word for “brief”), which would be worth two whole bars in ⁴₄ time! Then we divided that in half to create the “Semibreve”. The semibreve is probably the longest note you’re likely to see in modern music. It looks like this:

Just a circle….well they had to start somewhere! This note is also known as the “whole note” in American terminology (probably because it takes up the whole length of a ⁴₄ bar…).

Next, we divide that note further into the “minim” (a.k.a. the “half note”). Which looks like this:

A circle with a stick (known as the “stem”). The stem can go either up or down- it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that two of these “minims” take the same amount of time as one of the semibreves above (that’s why there’s two in the picture).

Then, we divide that note in half again, which gives us the “crotchet” (also known as the “quarter note”- so: whole, half, quarter…see the pattern?). The crotchet looks like this:

A circle with a stick again…but this time the circle has been coloured in. Again, the stem can go either up or down (as is true with every note with a stem). Two of these crotchets take the same amount of time as one minim, and four crotchets (as pictured) are equal in length to one semibreve.

Then, guess what? Yup, we divide the note in half again! This gives us the quaver (no, not the crisps!) or “8th note”. It looks like this:

This note has it’s head (the round part) filled in, a stem, and a line at the top of the stem. When these notes are seen on their own, they still have the top line (known as a “flag”, “beam”, or “hook”), but when they are together the top lines join together (to show where the beats are and make everything easier to read…).

Two of these take the same time as one crotchet (quarter note), four of these are equal to one minim (half note), and eight of these are equal to one semibreve.

Obviously we can keep dividing ad infinitum if we want, and each time we do, we add a flag to the top of the note. So, here are 16 semiquavers (or 16th notes). Two of these are equal to one of the quavers above, and four of them are equal to a crotchet, 8 of them are equal to a minim, and 16 of them are equal to a semibreve.

…and finally, the demisemiquaver (or 32nd note)- half of a semiquaver! You’re unlikely to see or use smaller than this, but if you do, you’ll know that it just keeps adding flags to the stem:

June 17, 2011 at 8:00 am | Music Theory | No comments