The note value allows us to specify the duration of a sound. In the example below you can see the note values and their duration:
Note | Name (USA) | Name (England) | Value |
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Double Whole Note | Breve or brevis | Two whole notes |
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Whole Note | Semibreve | Two Half Notes or a half of a Double Whole Note |
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Half Note | Minim | Two Quarter Notes or a half of a Whole Note |
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Quarter Note | Crotchet | Two Eighth Notes or a half of a Half Note |
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Eighth Note | Quaver | Two Sixteenth Notes or a half of a Quarter Note |
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Sixteenth Note | Semiquaver | Two 32nd Notes or a half of an Eighth Note |
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32nd Note | Demisemiquaver | Two 64th Notes or a half of a Sixteenth Note |
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64th Note | Hemidemisemiquaver | Half of a 32nd Note |
Names in other languages |
As you may notice, each note duration is the double of the following note and half of the time than the previous one.
NOTE: When we write Eighth notes, Sixteenth notes, 32nd notes and 64th notes we customarily group with a beam all of those that are within a “family” (type of note), in order to facilitate the reading. Here are some examples:
See Reading Music in the Tutorials section.