A Note about Pitch and Duration
What is a note? A note or rather, music notes are what represent a
fixed pitch. And while you will find that it almost always is referred
to the actual physical note of a pitch, you will see that it is often
used to show both the pitch and the notation. Are you stumped yet? Don’t
worry, you will find that although many of these terms may seem new to
you, you will be able to recognize them much easier as you begin to
learn to read music. Just remember to take your time, relax, and enjoy
yourself. In fact, if you look at it you will find that the notes
themselves are easy to understand as they follow the alphabet.
The musical notes are as follows; A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. These will be
the same whether you go up or down on your instrument, but you can get
extra notes out of them. For instance, you can go for flat or sharp
notes when you raise or lower it by a half-step. A great example of
these half steps would be the black keys on a piano. Furthermore, you
will find that whether they become half notes or whole notes will depend
on the values that are set for them. The following will be a brief
description of what these values are and what they mean to the sound you
will make.
Whole Notes
Whole notes are also known as breve notes. These last for four beats, or
rather, 4/4, and you will know this by the while note symbol that looks
like a plain oval that is hollow.
Half Notes
Half notes are also known as minim notes, and these last for just two
beats. You will notice these show a symbol that look like whole notes
oval but with a stem on it.
Quarter Note
 A quarter note is also known as a crochet note. This particular one
will be represented by just a quarter of a whole note. Learning how to
read music also means recognizing the symbols, and the symbol for this
would be a solid looking whole note with a step.
Eighth Note
An eighth note is also known as a quaver note and it is one-eighth of a
whole note, or rather, one beat in the 4/4 selection. You will find that
this looks just like a quarter note except there is a flag on the stem.
Also, if you use more than one of these in a row they will be attached
side by side with a solid beam to connect all the adjacent notes.
Sixteenth Notes
The Sixteenth note is also known as the demi-quaver note. This will be
of course one-sixteenth of a while note and it will look like its
predecessor, the eighth note except it will have two flags and two solid
beams rather than one.
You will find that the value of all these notes can further be changed
if you add a dot. These dotted notes express the value of what the
original note is plus an extra half. For instance, if you have a dotted
quarter note it will be held for one and a half beats rather than just
one.
And finally, you will see when you look at the musical scale that there
are what are called rest spots. This is where there should only be
silence. To figure out how long you need to be silent you will see that
they will have the same values as the note that they correspond with.
Now you can have a go on your piano.
|
