Types of Music Note Values

Grade 1

Music is divided into beats.

Some notes are longer than a beat, others are shorter, but
they all divided nicely into the beats in some way.

This lesson will look at:

a)Crotchets/Quarter (¼)Notes
b)Quavers/Eighth (⅛) Notes
c)Minims/Half (½) Notes
d)Semiquavers/Sixteenth (1/16) Notes
e)Semibreves/Whole Notes
 a) The Crotchet or Quarter Note

The crotchet or quarter note looks like this:

The crotchet is made up of two parts:

The stem can point up or down. Whether it points up or

down will be explained in ​Note Names​, so don’t worry
about this just yet.

A crotchet or quarter note is normally equal to ​one beat​ in

music.

While this is not always the case, different lengths of beats

get quite complex, and will be explored in the later grades.
 b)The Quaver or Eighth Note

The quaver or eighth note looks like this:

Parts of a Music Note

The quaver looks different to a crotchet, and it has all the

different parts of a music note.

Like the crotchet, the quaver has the stem and head, but it
also has a flag. The flag is what distinguishes the quaver
from the crotchet, and determines its length compared to
notes like semiquavers (covered later in this lesson).

It can also be written with it’s stem pointing up or down.

Each Quaver is half the length of a crotchet and is

therefore ​half a beat​.
 c)Minim/Half Note

The minim or half note looks like this:

Like the crotchet, the minim is made up of two parts: the

stem and the note head. However, whilst the crotchet has
a black head, the minim has a white head. This is how it is
distinguished from the crotchet.

Again, the minim can point up or down.

Each minim is twice the length of a crotchet and is worth

two beats​.
 d) ​Semiquaver/Sixteenth Note

The Semiquaver or Sixteenth note looks like this:

It looks similar to the quaver, however you’ll notice how it

has two flags. The flags are what distinguish it from the
quaver and determines it’s duration. It can point up or
down.

A semiquaver a quarter of a beat. This makes it half the

length of a quaver, and ​a quarter that of a crotchet​.
 e)Semibreve/Whole Note

The final note you need to know about for grade 1 is the
Semibreve (UK) or Whole Note (US). It looks like this:

Its different from other note values as it lacks a stem or

flag, it is simply a head.

The semibreve/whole note value lasts ​four beats​, and is

the longest lasting note value you’ll need to know for some
time.
Final Thoughts

Practically all western music is organised into a pulse or

beat.

Different music note values have different durations and

can take up more or less than one beat.

All the types of beats and notes divide easily into each
other.

Here is all of the music note values needed for now:

Finally, here is the parts of a music note: