Time Names of Notes

When we are listening to music especially a dance number,
some of us would tap our feet ' in time'. In fact, we are actually tapping to the steady beats of the music.

Today, we are going to discuss about the time values of  crotchets, minims and semibreves.

Crotchets

- Crotchets are also known as quarter notes

- It has one beat
Crotchets look like this: 

  or this

 - It has a black note head and a basic stem

Minims

- Minims are also called half notes

- It has two beats

- Its sound last as long as 2 crotchets
Minims look like this:

or this 

- It has a white note head and a basic stem.

Semibreves

- Semibreves are also known as whole notes

- It has a 4 beats

- This also means its sound last as long as 4 crotchets.

Semibreve look like this:

- Semibreve is basically a horizontal oval shape. Since it has no stem, hence, there is only one way to draw it.

Quaver
- Quaver are also known as eighth note
- A quaver represents half a beat.
Quavers look like this:

or this  

It also has a black head note and stem but it also has a tail on the RIGHT side of its stem.

Semiquaver
- Semiquavers are known as sixteenth notes.
- A semiquaver represents a quarter of beat. ( 4 semiquavers make up one beat)
Semiquavers look like this:
 or this 

We can join together two or more semiquavers like this:

Like the quaver, semiquavers have a black head note and stem with tail on its right side. However, it has a two tails instead of one.

References
Eric Taylor (1999). First Steps in Music Theory. 24 Portland Place London W1B 1LU United Kingdom: The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (Publishing) Limited