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In music, a half note (American) or minim (British) is a note played for half the duration of a whole note (or semibreve) and twice the duration of a quarter note (or crotchet). It was given its Latin name ( minima , meaning "least or smallest") because it was the shortest of the five note values used in early medieval music notation . [ 1 ]
The first half of the principal note's duration has the pitch of the grace note (the first two-thirds if the principal note is a dotted note). Acciaccatura The acciaccatura is of very brief duration, as though brushed on the way to the principal note, which receives virtually all of its notated duration.
This dot adds the next briefer note value, making it one and a half times its original duration. A number of dots ( n ) lengthen the note value by 2 n − 1 / 2 n its value, so two dots add two lower note values, making a total of one and three quarters times its original duration.
Note value expresses the relative duration of the note in time. Dynamics for a note indicate how loud to play them. Articulations may further indicate how performers should shape the attack and decay of the note and express fluctuations in a note's timbre and pitch. Notes may even distinguish the use of different extended techniques by using ...
Dotted notes and their equivalent durations. The curved lines, called ties, add the note values together. In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it. [a] In modern practice, the first dot increases the duration of the basic note by half (the original note with an extra beam) of its original value.
The system of note types used in mensural notation closely corresponds to the modern system. The mensural brevis is nominally the ancestor of the modern double whole note (breve); likewise, the semibrevis corresponds to the whole note (semibreve), the minima to the half note (minim), the semiminima to the quarter note (crotchet), and the fusa to the eighth note (quaver).
A stemmed hollow oval is a half note or minim. Solid ovals always use stems, and can indicate quarter notes (crotchets) or, with added beams or flags, smaller subdivisions. Additional symbols such as dots and ties can lengthen the duration of a note. A staff of written music generally begins with a clef, which indicates the pitch-range of the ...
Most time signatures consist of two numerals, one stacked above the other: The lower numeral indicates the note value that the signature is counting. This number is always a power of 2 (unless the time signature is irrational), usually 2, 4 or 8, but less often 16 is also used, usually in Baroque music. 2 corresponds to the half note (minim), 4 to the quarter note (crotchet), 8 to the eighth ...