Dotted note
A dot after a note lengthens it by half its value. A dotted half note therefore lasts three beats, a dotted quarter note one and a half. Two dots lengthen the note by three quarters of its value in total.
- Rule
- value + half the value
- Two dots
- value + ½ + ¼ of the value
- Example
- dotted half note = 3 quarter notes
- Sign
- dot to the right of the notehead
The arithmetic
The core is set out on the page Rhythm: a dot after a note lengthens it by half its value. A dotted half note lasts 2 + 1 = 3 quarter notes, a dotted quarter note one and a half beats. Rhythm Dictation adds that a dotted quarter note lasts as long as three eighth notes. The symbol library gives the formula: new value equals original value plus half of it, and for a double dot a lengthening by three quarters.
| Note | Value in beats | with one dot | with two dots |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 6 | 7 |
| Half note | 2 | 3 | 3½ |
| Quarter note | 1 | 1½ | 1¾ |
| Eighth note | ½ | ¾ | ⅞ |
The table works through both cases for the four most common values. The second dot is always half as long as the first: for the quarter note, ½ and then ¼ are added to the 1.
Counting
Dotting calls for subdivision. Count “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” and, for a dotted quarter note, say one and a half beats: “1 – and – 2”. Two notes in a row, a dotted quarter note plus an eighth note, fill exactly two beats, as the examples below show. The page Rhythm recommends tapping the basic pulse with your foot and speaking the subdivisions.
Examples from the sheet music archive
Piano
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Sonata facile, 1st movement: Allegro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 545 · piano · 4 pages
In bar 2 the right hand has a dotted quarter note followed by two sixteenth notes. Together they make two beats: one and a half for the dotted quarter note, half a beat for the two sixteenth notes.
Song
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Der Tod und das Mädchen Franz Schubert, D. 531 · voice and piano · 2 pages
The girl's very first entry shows three degrees of dotting: in bar 9 a dotted eighth note is followed by a sixteenth note, in bar 11 there are two dotted quarter notes, each followed by an eighth note, and in bar 12 a dotted half note that fills the whole bar except the last quarter note. The long note carries the stress each time, the short one leads on to the next.
Effect
Dotting makes rhythms springy. The article Understanding and counting syncopation names dotting, alongside the tie, as one of two ways of getting a syncopation onto paper: a dotted quarter note lasts one and a half counts, and everything that comes after it lies between the beats automatically. The symbol library points to the dotted rhythms of Baroque dances such as the gigue and the siciliana, and to march and gallop rhythms.
Continue on Maikstrings
Related terms
Note valueHalf noteQuarter noteEighth noteSyncopationTieTripletBar / measureBeat
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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