Music Basics: Notes and Rhythm. Lesson 1: Note Values, Duration, and Time Signatures.

A note represents the pitch and duration
of a musical sound.

Let's begin with duration,
or note value.

Here are five note values.

A whole note, which is a circle.

A half note, which is a circle with a stem
so two half notes equal one whole note.

A quarter note is like a half note,
but it's filled in.

Two of these equal a half note.

Four of these equal a whole note.

An eighth note is like a quarter note,
plus a flag.

Two of these equal a quarter note.

Four equal a half note,

and eight equal a whole note.

A sixteenth note is like an eighth note,
but with an extra flag.

The pattern is the same;
two sixteenths equal one eighth,

four sixteenths equal one quarter,
and so on.

These flags can also be connected,

and the stems can go up or down

without any change
to the duration or length.

Now let's look at how these notes
specifically apply to music.

We first begin with a time signature.

The one that I'm choosing is 4/4.

The top number indicates how many
regular pulses or beats

are in each measure or bar.

The lower number tells us
what kind of note is equal to one beat.

Therefore, if we write 4 quarter notes
in 4/4,

the bar is over and we add a bar line.

If we do the same thing a second time,
we have created 2 bars or 2 measures.

The words measure and bar
are used interchangeably.

Let's use our five-note values in 4/4.

The whole note gets 4 beats.

If we find a whole note in music
with a time signature of 4/4,

we would play or sing a single note,
and it would last the whole bar.

A half note would get half of the whole,
or 2 beats.

Let's listen to the beginning of Dvořák's
New World Symphony's slow movement.

This brass chorale has 3 measures,
or 3 bars of half notes

and then one measure of a whole note.

[orchestra music]