Eighth note

Half a beat

Every note value has a fixed length. The page Rhythm has the table for 4/4: whole note four beats, half note two, quarter note one, eighth note half a beat and sixteenth note a quarter of a beat. The exercise page on Rhythm Dictation puts it as a proportion: a whole note lasts as long as two half notes, four quarter notes, eight eighth notes or sixteen sixteenth notes.

These ratios hold independently of tempo. The tempo only decides how long a beat is in seconds. A dot after a note lengthens it by half its value, so a dotted quarter note lasts as long as three eighth notes.

Counting eighth notes

In 4/4 you count the four basic beats “1 – 2 – 3 – 4”. If a beat divides into two eighth notes, you slip an “and” in between: “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”. Each “and” lies exactly between two beats. Every eighth note has a matching eighth rest of equal length, because silence, according to the page, is as much a part of rhythm as the note.

The time signature also says something about eighth notes: the lower number shows which note value forms one beat. In 6/8 it is the eighth note. A 6/8 bar contains six eighth notes, usually counted in two groups of three, with the weight on 1 and 4. According to the page that gives it a rocking, flowing character, as in ballads and barcaroles.

Eighth notes in the score

A note consists of a note head, usually a stem and sometimes flags or beams. Single eighth notes carry a flag, several in a row are joined by a beam. Two sheets from the archive show what that looks like in practice:

Guitar

• Gitarrenschule, Stück Nr. 9 Johann Kaspar Mertz · from: Guitar-Skole · guitar · 1 page

  In 4/4. Bar 1 consists of a quarter-note chord, two eighth notes joined by a beam, another quarter-note chord and two more eighth notes: 1 – 2 and 3 – 4 and.

Piano

• Achttaktige Übung Nr. 4 Carl Czerny, op. 821 No. 4 · piano · 1 page

  In 6/8. In the first bar the right hand plays six eighth notes, grouped by beams into two groups of three. That is the grouping the page Rhythm describes for compound time signatures.

If you set the metronome, you hear the connection directly. On the page Notation symbols a listening aid describes the ratio: a quarter note lasts exactly one beat and coincides with a click, an eighth note lasts half a beat, you hear two eighth notes per click.

Common mistakes

• Rushing the eighth notes: The “and” lies exactly in the middle between two beats. If you play the eighth notes faster than the quarter notes, you change the rhythm.
• Swapping eighth note and eighth rest: Both last half a beat, the sign is different. A rest does not sound but is counted.
• Placing the beat wrongly in 6/8: Six eighth notes do not mean six equally weighted beats, but two groups of three.