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As the name implies, a quarter note's duration is one quarter that of a whole note, half the length of a half note, and twice that of an eighth note. It represents one beat in a bar of 4 4 time. The term "quarter note" is a calque (loan-translation) of the German term Viertelnote.
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 ]
It lengthens an already dotted note by half: a dotted half note (minim) consisting of 6 quarter notes becomes 9 quarters when vertically double-dotted. This greatly simplifies modern notation (which otherwise would require a dotted half note tied to a dotted quarter note).
A tuplet is a group of notes that would not normally fit into the rhythmic space they occupy. The example shown is a quarter-note triplet—three quarter notes are to be played in the space that would normally contain two. (To determine how many "normal" notes are being replaced by the tuplet, it is sometimes necessary to examine the context.)
Quarter tone on C. A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (orally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, and have 24 different pitches.
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.
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 ...