Whole Note

The whole note is the longest note you will meet in most music. It is an open, hollow oval with no stem, slightly wider than the head of a half note. In 4/4 it lasts four beats and fills a whole bar by itself, which is how it got its name. In British English it is called a semibreve.

How long is a whole note?

A whole note equals two half notes, four quarter notes or eight eighth notes. In 4/4, where a quarter note gets the beat, that makes it four beats long. Because it lasts four quarter-note beats, a single whole note does not fit in a bar of 3/4 or 2/4; a full bar of sound in 3/4 is written as a dotted half note instead.

In cut time (2/2) the half note gets the beat, so a whole note lasts two beats there, still one full bar.

▶Listen0:10

Playing a whole note

Play the note on beat 1 and keep it sounding while you count "1, 2, 3, 4". Release it exactly as the next bar begins, not early. On the piano that means holding the key down; on wind and string instruments it means keeping the breath or bow going evenly to the end, without letting the sound die away too soon.

A whole note longer than one bar is written as two notes joined by a tie. A dotted whole note lasts six quarter-note beats and fills a bar of 6/4 or 3/2.

Whole note and whole rest

The silent partner of the whole note is the whole rest, a small block hanging below the fourth line of the staff. Besides four beats of silence in 4/4, a whole rest is also used for a whole bar of silence in any time signature.

Practice reading and counting it with The Whole Note.