Musical Language
Senior 1 · Music
Musical Language
Lesson 3 of 5
22 min
Listen to the drummers who accompany intore dancers. Some drum strokes are long and heavy and others are short and quick, and the pattern of long and short sounds is what makes the dance move. That pattern is called rhythm. The staff shows how high a note is; the shape of the note shows how long it lasts. This lesson teaches the shapes and their values.
A written note can have up to three parts: the oval note head, a straight line called the stem, and one or more flags (also called tails) on the stem. When several short notes come together, their flags are usually replaced by a thick line joining the stems, called a beam.
Whether the head is hollow or filled, whether it has a stem, and how many flags or beams it has, together tell you the note's value: how long it lasts compared with the other notes.
We measure note values in beats. The beat is the steady pulse you tap your foot to. In most school songs one beat is a crotchet, so the table gives each value in crotchet beats. Rwandan and British books use the British names; many books from the United States use the American names, which describe each note as a fraction of the longest one.
Look at how each shape is made from the one above it:
Each value is exactly twice as long as the next one down. So one semibreve lasts as long as 2 minims, or 4 crotchets, or 8 quavers, or 16 semiquavers. Every row of the tree below fills the same amount of time.
Worked example
How many beats do a minim, a crotchet and two quavers last altogether? The minim is 2 beats and the crotchet is 1 beat. Each quaver is half a beat, so two quavers make 1 beat. Total: 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 beats, exactly as long as a semibreve.
Stems follow a simple rule that keeps music tidy:
The direction of the stem never changes the value of a note. Quavers and semiquavers that fall within the same beat are joined by beams, so that the eye can see each beat as one group.
A dot written just after a note head makes the note longer by half its own value.
Worked example
How long is a dotted minim? A minim is 2 beats. Half of 2 is 1. So the dotted minim lasts 2 + 1 = 3 beats. In the same way a dotted crotchet lasts 1 + half = one and a half beats.
Tip
Halve as you go down the tree. Semibreve 4, minim 2, crotchet 1, quaver half, semiquaver a quarter. Each extra feature (stem, filled head, flag, second flag) halves the value. A dot adds half of the note it follows.
Try each question first, then check the worked solution underneath.
Which note has a filled head, a stem and one flag? How many crotchet beats does it last?
Solution: A quaver. It lasts half a crotchet beat, so two quavers fill one beat.
How many crotchets last as long as one semibreve?
Solution: 4. A semibreve is 4 beats and each crotchet is 1 beat.
How many semiquavers last as long as one crotchet?
Solution: 4. A crotchet splits into 2 quavers, and each quaver splits into 2 semiquavers: 2 × 2 = 4.
Add up: a dotted minim and a crotchet.
Solution: 4 beats. The dotted minim is 2 + 1 = 3 beats, and the crotchet adds 1.
A note is written on line 4 of the treble staff. Should its stem go up or down?
Solution: Down, on the left of the head, because line 4 is above the middle line (line 3).
Remember
Sources and credits
The lesson text, the note chart, the note tree, the other diagrams and the practice were written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
