Overview:
Every culture in the world has language and music. Like language, music can have an oral tradition as well as a written one. Although oral tradition in music is alive and well in almost every type of society, literate societies have also evolved certain systems of graphic notations to represent sounds and the interpretation of those sounds.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Compare and contrast syllabic and alphabetic notation systems.
- Interpret the relative lengths of notational duration including equivalent rests.
- Compare and contrast traditional notation with stick notation.
Pitch and Duration
Notes are musical symbols that indicate two basic parameters: Pitch—how high or low a sound is—and duration—how long a sound lasts. The shape of notes represents their relative duration. Their position on the staff indicates their pitch.
The longest value in notated music is usually the whole note. The names of each smaller division are derived in a very logical way. Half of the whole note is a half note. Half of the half note is a quarter note. In turn, half of the quarter note is an eighth note, and half of the eighth note is a sixteenth note. Therefore, it takes two half notes, four quarter notes, eight eighth-notes, or sixteen sixteenth notes to make a whole note. Composers decide which note values to use depending on the musical result they wish to accomplish.
The following movie is a brief explanation of the relative durations found in note values and rests.
Rhythmic DurationThe following interaction shows the relative duration of notes. Each value group lasts for four beats. You can count those beats as you listen to each duration group.
The following table summarizes the most common note names and their symbols including the ones that represent rests. Rests indicate periods of silence during which no notes are played or sung.
| Note Name | Symbol | Rest Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Whole |  |
 |
| Half |  |
 |
| Quarter |  |
 |
| Eighth |  |
 |
| Sixteenth |  |
 |
Note shapes consist of the notehead, the stem, and flags. The whole note is the only value represented by just a notehead. All the other shapes have a stem. In addition to the notehead and the stem, the eighth and sixteenth notes also have one and two flags.
Stem direction does not affect note duration. To keep music scores tidy, however, notes written above the middle staff line have stems pointing down while notes below that line have stems pointing up. Stems of notes on the middle line can go either way.
Stems that go up attach to the right of the note head. Stems that go down attach to the left. Regardless of stem direction, flags always attach to the right of the stem.