Music Notes: How Pitch & Duration Are Determined

Notes are the musical notation representing a fixedor two beats. They are written as a hollow note with
pitch. While the word strictly refers to the physicala stem that points up when placed below the middle
notation of a pitch, it's more commonly used to referof the staff, up when placed above it.
to both the pitch and the notation.Quarter notes (or crochet notes) represent a quarter
Notes are named after the first seven letters in theof a whole note, or one beat in 4/4 time. They are
alphabet -- A, B, C, D, E, F, and G -- and keep thethe most recognizable note: a solid black note with a
same letter value as they are repeated up or downstem.
the keyboard or other musical instrument.Eighth notes (or quaver notes) are one-eighth of a
But since there are twelve notes in a diatonic scale,whole note and are written exactly like a quarter
the seven notes can be altered. To get the extranote, but with a flag attached to the stem. When
five notes,we sharp notes(raise by a half-step) andmore than one eighth note is placed side by side, a
flat notes (lower by a half-step); the sharped andsolid beam connects the adjacent notes.
flatted notes are the black keys on a piano. All notesSixteenth notes (or demi-quaver notes) are
can be altered this way, but a C flat is enharmonicone-sixteenth of a whole note and represented as an
with B, a white key, and B sharp is enharmonic witheighth note with two flags or two solid beams.
C -- a white key.Likewise E sharp is enharmonic withThirty-second (demi-semi-quaver) and sixty-fourth
F -- also a white key, and of course F flat isnotes (hemi-demi-semi-quaver) represent the section
enharmonic with E, a white key.of a whole note indicated by their names; they are
The types of notes and their values are based ondrawn as eighth or sixteenth notes with an additional
the amount of time they take up in a song and areflags.
named in a hierarchy of values:It's also important to mention that the value of a
Brevenote can be changed by adding a dot. Dotted notes
Minimrepresent the value of the original note, plus one half.
CrochetFor instance, dotted half notes are held for three
Quaverbeats, dotted quarter notes for a beat and one half,
Demi-quaverand so on.
Demi-semi-quaverIn addition to musical notes, there are also musical
Hemi-demi-semi-quaverrests which are signs of silence. They have the same
Whole notes (or breve notes) are four beats long (intime values as their corresponding notes, and when
common time, also known as 4/4 time), which isinterspersed with notes of varying time values create
equal to one measure in 4/4 time. They aredifferent kinds of rhythms.
represented by a hollow, oval note with no stem.All together, they spell music.
Half notes (or minim notes) are half of a whole note,