Half Note

The half note looks like a whole note with a stem added: an open, hollow oval with a straight line going up or down. It lasts half as long as a whole note and twice as long as a quarter note. In 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4, where the quarter note gets the beat, a half note lasts two beats. In British English it is called a minim.

▶Listen0:10

Counting half notes

Play the note on its first beat and hold it through the second: "1-2" or "3-4". In 4/4, half notes most often start on beat 1 or beat 3. One that starts on beat 2, in the pattern quarter-half-quarter, creates a simple syncopation: the long note begins on a weak beat.

Which way does the stem go?

When the notehead sits below the middle line of the staff, the stem goes up from its right side. When it sits above the middle line, the stem goes down from its left side. On the middle line either direction is possible, though down is the usual choice. The direction changes how the note looks, never how long it lasts.

The dotted half note and the half rest

A dot after a half note makes it three beats long, the length of a whole bar of 3/4. The matching silence is the half rest, a small block sitting on top of the middle line of the staff.

In cut time (2/2), the half note is the beat itself, so it counts as one beat there.

Practice both with The Half Note and The Dotted Half Note.