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Notation & Symbols

Note

Definition

A note is a symbol for a musical sound: where it sits on the staff shows its pitch, and its shape shows how long it lasts. The word also means the sound itself, as in 'play that note again'.

A written note does two jobs at once. Its position on the staff tells you how high or low to play, its pitch. Its shape tells you how long to hold it, its note value. Read both every time: the right key held for the wrong length is still a wrong note.

Two treble-clef bars in 4/4. The first has four quarter notes climbing G, B, D, G. The second stays on G: a half note, a quarter note and two beamed eighth notes.
Left: four quarter notes of the same length on different lines and spaces, so they sound different pitches (G, B, D and G). Right: one pitch, G, written as a half note, a quarter note and two eighth notes, so the notes last different lengths.

The parts of a note

  • The notehead is the oval. It sits on a line or in a space, and it is either open (hollow) or filled in.
  • The stem is the thin vertical line attached to the notehead. Of the common values, only the whole note has none.
  • A flag is the curved tail on the stem of an eighth note or anything shorter. When several short notes come together, beams usually replace the flags.
  • A dot after the notehead makes the note half as long again (see dotted note).

How long notes last

The common note values, from longest to shortest, are each half as long as the one before:

British musicians call the same symbols the semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver and semiquaver.

How notes are named

Notes are named with the first seven letters of the alphabet, A to G, and then the pattern starts again in the next octave (see note names). The clef tells you which letter each line and space stands for. A sharp raises that letter's natural pitch by a half step, a flat lowers it by a half step, and a natural restores the unaltered pitch.

Note, tone and rest

In everyday use, "note" means both the written symbol and the sound it stands for. Some textbooks, especially American ones, keep the word "tone" for the sound, but most musicians say note for both. The silent partner of a note is the rest: a symbol for a measured silence, with lengths that match the note values.

Start with The quarter note for length and Name the notes: treble clef for pitch.

Common questions

What is the difference between a note and a pitch?

A pitch is how high or low a sound is. A note is the written symbol, or the played sound, that combines a pitch with a length.

What are the parts of a music note?

The notehead, the stem and, on shorter notes, a flag or a beam. A dot after the notehead lengthens the note by half.

Practice it: free worksheets