Notes and Rests

We are going to start with notes. These are the words of the musical language. They tell us what note to play and for how long. Rests tell us how long to play nothing, or have silence in the music. We’re going to learn four types of notes and rests; whole, half, quarter and eighth. We’re going to learn them all as if they were in 4/4 time (which might not make sense to you right now, but will in Unit 3, so hold that thought!)

Notes and rests work in the same lengths with the same names, so there is a whole note and a whole rest and they both are the same duration. For that reason, we’ll learn them here together.

When I speak of the length of the note or rest I mean the duration of play of that note, not the physical length of the note or rest as it’s written.

Whole Note and Whole Rest

The whole note is represented by an oval and has no stem. It lasts for four beats, and is the longest note we’ll be learning here.

The whole rest is a small square that hangs down from a line on the staff. It also lasts for four beats, and is the longest rest we’ll be learning.

Half Note and Rest

The half note is represented by a small oval with a stem that either points up or down based on it’s location on the staff. It lasts for 2 beats, so it’s half as long as the whole note.

The half rest is represented by a a small square, much like the whole rest. The half rest sits on top of the staff line instead of hanging below. It also lasts 2 beats, and is half as long as the whole rest.

Quarter Note and Rest

The quarter note is represented by a filled in oval with a stem that either points up or down based on it’s location on the staff. You’ll notice that the difference between the half and quarter notes is that the quarter note is fully black whereas the half is empty or white in the middle. It lasts for one beat, and is half as long as the half note (see a trend here?)

The quarter rest is represented by the fancy squiggle above. When I write it by hand it looks more like a “Z” with a “C” attached to the bottom. It also lasts for one beat, half as long as the half rest.

Eighth Note and Rest

The eighth note is represented by a quarter note with a flag. It also has a stem that either points up or down based on it’s location on the staff. It can also be written attached to other eighth notes like this:

The eighth note lasts for half of a beat. This makes it half as long as the quarter note.

The eighth rest is represented by a simpler squiggle, this time looking more like a lowercase “R”. It also lasts for half of a beat.