Once we understand the concept of measure and beats, we can start reading music.

Symbols are used to indicate the duration of a sound. Let’s start by getting to know the symbols with durations of one, two, and four beats:

Name (USA)	Name (England)	Duration	Symbol
Whole Note	Semibreve	4 beats
Half Note	Minim	2 beats
Quarter Note	Crotchet	1 beat

Note the relationship of values between the different symbols:

Each whole note (semibreve):
is divided into two half notes (minim). And each half note (minim)
is divided into two quarter notes (crotchet)
Thus, each symbol will have half the value of the preceding shape.

Let's see a musical example using these symbols. The vertical lines (or bar lines) separate and group the notes into measures to facilitate reading (we can see three measures in this particular example). You can hear a percussive sound for each beat and a flute playing the written notes. Note how a half note will take the duration of two percussive sounds (two beats), the quarter note will take just one beat and the whole note has a four beats duration:

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Translated by Dan Román, revised by Sue Talley.

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