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An eighth note or a quaver is a musical note played for one eighth the duration of a whole note (semibreve). Its length relative to other rhythmic values is as expected—e.g., half the duration of a quarter note (crotchet), one quarter the duration of a half note (minim), and twice the value of a sixteenth note.
A single eighth note, or any faster note, is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups. [16] When a stem is present, it can go either up (from the right side of the note head) or down (from the left side), except in the cases of the longa or maxima which are nearly always written with downward stems.
A quaver, a dotted quaver, and a semiquaver, all joined with a primary beam (the semiquaver has a secondary beam) In musical notation, a beam is a horizontal or diagonal line used to connect multiple consecutive notes (and occasionally rests) to indicate rhythmic grouping. Only eighth notes (quavers) or shorter can be beamed.
Without dot 3 or 6, the indicated note is an eighth note (quaver). With dot 6, it is a quarter note; dot 3, a half note; and dots 3,6, a whole note. [9] Every rhythm symbol does double up in meaning: 8th notes match 128th notes; quarter notes (crotchets) match 64th notes; half notes match 32nd notes; and whole notes match 16th notes (semiquavers).
The length of a rest corresponds with that of a particular note value, thus indicating how long the silence should last. Each type of rest is named for the note value it corresponds with (e.g. quarter note and quarter rest, or quaver and quaver rest), and each of them has a distinctive sign.
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).
Because of that, all notes with these kinds of relations can be grouped under the same pitch class and are often given the same name. The top note of a musical scale is the bottom note's second harmonic and has double the bottom note's frequency. Because both notes belong to the same pitch class, they are often called by the same name.
Musical symbols are marks and symbols in musical notation that indicate various aspects of how a piece of music is to be performed. There are symbols to communicate information about many musical elements, including pitch, duration, dynamics, or articulation of musical notes; tempo, metre, form (e.g., whether sections are repeated), and details about specific playing techniques (e.g., which ...