How to read rhythm: note values, rests, dots and ties

Rhythm is how long each note lasts, counted in beats. The look of a note tells you its length: hollow or filled, with or without a stem, flags or beams, and a dot or a tie adds to it. Good readers count it, steadily, rather than guess it by feel.

Note values

In most music a quarter note is one beat. Each value below is half as long as the one before it:

whole note: four beats, a hollow head with no stem
half note: two beats, a hollow head with a stem
quarter note: one beat, a filled head with a stem
eighth note: half a beat, a filled head with one flag, or one beam joining it to its neighbours
sixteenth note: a quarter of a beat, two flags, or two beams

A whole note, two half notes, and four quarter notes, one bar each — A whole note, two half notes, four quarter notes: each bar holds four beats

Eight eighth notes beamed in pairs, then sixteen sixteenth notes beamed in fours — Eighth notes beamed in pairs, a beat each pair; sixteenth notes beamed in fours

Rests

Each value has a rest of the same length: silence you count just as carefully as a note. The whole rest hangs down from the fourth line; the half rest sits on top of the middle line, like a hat. A whole rest also fills any bar that is silent from start to end, whatever the time signature.

Dots and ties

A dot after a note adds half its length again: a dotted half note is three beats (two beats and one more), and a dotted quarter is a beat and a half, so it is usually followed by an eighth note that finishes the beat. A tie is a curve joining two notes of the same pitch: play the first and hold it through the second, often across a bar line.

A dotted half note and a quarter note; a dotted quarter note, an eighth note and two quarter notes — A dotted half note (three beats), then a dotted quarter (a beat and a half) and an eighth

Two quarter notes and a half note tied over the bar line to a half note, then two quarter notes — A half note tied over the bar line: one key held for four beats

Triplets and notes off the beat

A 3 over three notes is a triplet: three notes in the time of two, so three triplet eighths share one beat. Later pieces also start notes between the beats and hold them across the next one (syncopation): count the "&" out loud and the note falls into place.

A triplet of eighth notes and three quarter notes; then an eighth, a quarter, an eighth and two quarters, the quarters starting off the beat — A triplet of eighth notes in one beat; then quarter notes that start off the beat

Count out loud

Say the beats as you play, at a speed where nothing has to hurry. With quarter notes: “1 2 3 4”. With eighths: “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”. With sixteenths: “1 e & a 2 e & a” and so on through the bar. A long note or a rest keeps counting; the count doesn't stop when your fingers do.

The trap

Reading the next note while holding a long one, it's easy to let go early or come in late. Count every beat of a held note or a rest, and practise a new rhythm on one key first: once the rhythm is sure, the notes are only one thing to read, not two. That's what the drill below does.

Now read them. A drill of the 10 rhythms in this guide: tap each card's rhythm on one key, of a MIDI keyboard or the keys on screen, in time. Every answer is checked against the beat and goes on your reading map.

Start the drill

Next: How to read time signatures