# Note values (`note-values.html`)

From the Rhythm room: Dividing the beat (/sangeet-yatra/rhythm/).

[Independence](independence.md) already used a whole bar, beats 1 and 3, and a walk in eighths. Hear each length on the page, then write a bar and read one. The names, the dot, the rest, and the tie live on [Western theory · Note values](/sangeet-yatra/theory/western/#note-values).

Interactive page: [`note-values.html`](note-values.html). Twin of this document. Part of **After C**, after the [scales lab](scales-lab.md) and before [Time signatures](time-signatures.md).

## The family

Press **Hear it**. Each row is half as long as the one above it. In **4/4** the walking beat is a **quarter note**.

| Note | In 4/4 | Fill one 4/4 bar |
|------|--------|------------------|
| **Whole** | 4 beats | 1 |
| **Half** | 2 beats | 2 |
| **Quarter** | 1 beat | 4 |
| **Eighth** | ½ beat | 8 |
| **Sixteenth** | ¼ beat | 16 |

The dot, the rest, and the tie are on [Western theory · Note values](/sangeet-yatra/theory/western/#note-values).

## Write a bar

On the HTML page: pick 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, or 6/8, add notes and rests until the bar is full, then **Play bar**. Tempo follows the practice-bar metronome (quarter note).

## Read a bar

(1) Read the time signature. (2) Name each note’s length in beats. (3) Check they sum to the top number. (4) Count it, then play. Counting syllables are on [Western theory · Note values](/sangeet-yatra/theory/western/#note-values).

The gallop is the one to know for the left hand: an eighth then two sixteenths on every beat, dah da-da (the HTML page plays it as a button). It is the Rhythm room's [Gallop](/sangeet-yatra/rhythm/dividing.html#d-gallop).

Next: [Time signatures](time-signatures.md). Then [Sight reading](reading.md), then [Highway Game](highway.md).