There’s More to Playing the Piano

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Chapter 1 - Note Values

Most music has a steady beat. The beat can be fast or slow depending on the piece of music being played. We describe our notes in terms of the beat, rather than trying to measure them in fractions of a second.

There are five very common notes that you will see in your music. Each of these notes has a different duration.

Semibreve	Minim	Crotchet	Quaver	Semiquaver
4 beats	2 beats	1 beat	½ beat	¼ beat

The diagram above assumes that one crotchet is one beat. This is a simplification - it is not always the case in pieces of music.

Each note can have a note head, a stem and a tail. Quavers and semiquavers can be joined together with beams.

A crotchet is typically one beat – but it is also known as a quarter note. This is because there are often four crotchets in each bar. You will often hear musicians counting 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4 etc.

Similarly, a minim is also known as a half note because there are often two minims in each bar.
A semibreve is known as a whole note because there is often one semibreve filling the whole bar.
Quavers are known as eighth notes.
Semiquavers are known as sixteenth notes.

	British name	Duration (assuming q = 1)	American name	Duration (compared to whole note)
	semibreve	4 beats	whole note	1
	minim	2 beats	half note	1/2
	crotchet	1 beat	quarter note	1/4
	quaver	1/2 beat	eighth note	1/8
	semiquaver	1/4 beat	sixteenth note	1/16

There are also other less frequently used, longer and shorter note values:

	Breves or double whole-notes - each breve is twice the length of a semibreve.
	Demisemiquavers or thirty-second notes - Each demisemiquaver is half the length of a semiquaver.
	Hemidemisemiquavers or sixty-fourth notes - each hemidemisemiquaver is half the length of a demisemiquaver.

At the piano Stream some music or play some music on a CD or the radio. Play along in crotchets, then minims, then semibreves. Also, practise drawing these different notes.