Note value

What it means

The note value is the duration a note sign designates. The German names directly state the ratio to the whole note: half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second — every value is half as long as the preceding one. This system is relative: it fixes the ratios, not the real time. How long a quarter note lasts is stated only by the tempo marking.

In the notation

The whole note consists of an open head without a stem, the half note of an open head with a stem, the quarter note of a filled head with a stem; from the eighth note on, a flag or a beam is added for every halving. Every note value has a corresponding rest with its own sign. A dot to the right of the head extends it by half, a second dot by a further quarter. Values that cannot be represented with dots arise through ties. Irregular divisions — triplet, quadruplet, quintuplet — carry their number above the group and divide a value into a number of equal parts that breaks the usual ratio.

Musical use

Today's system rests consistently on twofold division; threefold division must be specially indicated, through dotting, through triplets, or through a time signature with a threefold beat. This was not always so: in mensural notation, every value could by itself be twofold or threefold, and which applied was determined by the mensuration sign. Today's whole note goes back to the semibrevis of that system, that is, to a middle value that moved to the top only through the gradual slowing of the reference unit.

Note values form a series of twos.

Performance practice

When studying, separate rhythm and pitch: tap or speak a difficult passage first in rhythm alone before you play it. Count in the smallest occurring unit if the ratio is uncertain, and reduce only afterward. Really hold long values out — they are almost always taken too short, especially before an entrance.