themusictheorycourse.comFree online lesson, with sound and self-correcting exercises

I.2Part I, The Signs of Notation

Notes and Their Shapes

This lesson shows you how to recognize and name the seven note shapes, whether they're written with flags or with beams.

7 min8 questionsDanhauser § 7 to 9

Notes show two things at once: durations and sounds.

Their shape, the way they are drawn, tells you how long they last.
Their position on the staff tells you which sound they make, higher or lower.

In this lesson, we'll look at shape, the sign of duration. Position, the sign of pitch, comes in Lesson 4.

The seven note shapes

From left to right: whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note, 32nd note and 64th note.

the whole note, called a semibreve in British English, has a white, hollow notehead and no stem;
the half note, or minim, has a white notehead with a stem;
the quarter note, or crotchet, has a black, filled notehead with a stem;
the eighth note, or quaver, is a quarter note with a flag added;
the sixteenth note, or semiquaver, has two flags;
the 32nd note, or demisemiquaver, has three flags;
the 64th note, or hemidemisemiquaver, has four flags.

WorkshopNote Value TreeFull screen

Listen to each shape: click it to hear its relative duration.

Tempo: quarter = 72

Each row lasts exactly one whole note. Click a row to hear it over 4 metronome beats: each value is half of the one above.

Flags or beams

When several eighth, sixteenth, 32nd or 64th notes follow one another, their flags can be replaced by beams that join the notes together. Each note always gets as many beams as the flags they replace: one beam for eighth notes, two for sixteenths, three for 32nds and four for 64ths.

Two eighth notes with flags, then with a beam; then three sixteenth notes, and four 32nd notes.

You can also combine different values in one group. Each note then keeps as many beams as it had flags: one common beam joins the whole group, and the extra beams reach only the notes that need them.

First an eighth note, a sixteenth note and two 32nd notes; then an eighth note and two sixteenths; and finally a sixteenth, an eighth and a sixteenth.

Today.

This vocal convention, with separate flags for each syllable, is still found in many choral scores and older editions. Since the mid-20th century, though, many publishers beam notes by beat even in vocal music, just as in instrumental music, because it's often easier to read.
Here are the French names, which you'll meet in Danhauser and in French scores. The whole note is the “ronde”, the half note the “blanche”, the quarter note the “noire” and the eighth note the “croche”. Then come the “double croche” for the sixteenth, the “triple croche” for the 32nd and the “quadruple croche” for the 64th: the French names of the short values simply count the flags. Beams are “barres”, and flags are “crochets”.
In a digital audio workstation, the software used to record and produce music, the quantize grid speaks the same language as the American names: “1/4” means a quarter note, “1/8” an eighth note and “1/16” a sixteenth note.

Exercisein the method's spirit

1) Name each of these shapes. 2) Write this group of eighth notes with a beam.

Exercisein the method's spirit

Rewrite this beamed group with flags.

You can now recognize every shape. Next, we'll see how long each one lasts compared with the others.

Check your understanding

8 questions

According to Danhauser, how many note shapes are there in standard notation?

What is this shape?

Which shape has a white notehead and a stem?

How many beams are needed to join 32nd notes?

Two eighth notes joined by a beam last:

According to the custom Danhauser describes, vocal music keeps separate flags when:

What is the quarter note called in British English?

Which shape is simply a quarter note with a flag?

A lesson is completed automatically at 70% on the quiz. You can also mark it yourself.

A question, a mistake, a word about this lesson? Write to us.