Note value - WikiHQ

right|150px|thumb|Parts of a note [[symbol]]

In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the texture or shape of the notehead, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags/beams/hooks/tails. Unmodified note values are fractional powers of two, for example one, one-half, one fourth, etc.

A rest indicates a silence of an equivalent duration.

List

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!class="unsortable"|Note

!class="unsortable"|Rest

!American name

!British name

!Relative value

!class="unsortable"|Dotted value

!class="unsortable"|Double dotted value

!class="unsortable"|Triple dotted value

||70px ||x50px || colspan="2" |large, duplex longa, or maxima (occasionally octuple note, octuple whole note, || 8 || 8 + 4 = 12 || 8 + 4 + 2 = 14 || 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 15

|File:longa.gif || File:longa rest.svg || colspan="2" |long or longa (occasionally quadruple note or quadruple whole note) double note || breve || 2 || 2 + 1 = 3 || 2 + 1 + = || 2 + 1 + + =

|x15px || x70px || whole note || semibreve || 1 || 1 + = || 1 + + = || 1 + + + =

|x70px || x70px || half note || minim || || + = || + + = || + + + =

|x70px || x24px or x16px

|| quarter note || crotchet; semiminim || || + = || + + = || + + + =

|x70px || x30px || eighth note || quaver || || + = || + + = || + + + =

|x70px || x50px || sixteenth note || semiquaver || || + = || + + = || + + + =

|x70px || x70px || thirty-second note || demisemiquaver || || + = || + + = || + + + =

|x70px || x70px || sixty-fourth note || hemidemisemiquaver || || + = || + + = || + + + =

|x70px || x70px || hundred twenty-eighth note || semihemidemisemiquaver (rare) || || + = || + + = || + + + =

|x70px || x70px || two hundred fifty-sixth note || demisemihemidemisemiquaver (rare) || || + = || + + = || + + + =

Shorter notes can be created theoretically ad infinitum by adding further flags, but are very rare.

Variations

thumb|Variants of the breve. The first two are commonly used; the third is a stylistic alternative.

The breve appears in several different versions.

Sometimes the longa or breve is used to indicate a very long note of indefinite duration, as at the end of a piece (e.g. at the end of Mozart's Mass KV 192).

A single eighth note, or any faster note, is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups. When a stem is present, it can go either up (from the right side of the note head) or down (from the left side), except in the cases of the longa or maxima which are nearly always written with downward stems. In most cases, the stem goes down if the notehead is on the center line or above, and up otherwise. Any flags always go to the right of the stem.

right|frame|Beamed notes

Modifiers

A note value may be augmented by adding a dot after it. This dot adds the next briefer note value, making it one and a half times its original duration. A number of dots (n) lengthen the note value by its value, so two dots add two lower note values, making a total of one and three quarters times its original duration. The rare three dots make it one and seven eighths the duration, and so on.

The double dot was first used in 1752 by J. J. Quantz; in music of the 18th century and earlier the amount by which the dot augmented the note varied: it could be more or less than the modern interpretation, to fit into the context.