Note values

Each step down the tree is half as long. Two of any value equal one of the value above it. In 4/4 the walking beat is a quarter note — that is what the bottom 4 means.

A dot after a note adds half of its own value: dotted half = 3 beats, dotted quarter = 1½. A rest is the same length as its note, but silent. A tie joins two notes of the same pitch into one longer sound (two tied quarters = a half).

The bottom number names the beat unit. The top number says how many of those units fit in a bar. Every written bar must add up to that total — no leftover, no overflow.

• 44 four quarters. One whole, or two halves, or four quarters, or eight eighths, or any mix that sums to 4.
• 34 three quarters (a waltz bar). A dotted half fills it. A whole note does not fit.
• 22 cut time: the beat is a half note. The bar is still as long as a 4/4 bar, but you feel two big beats, not four.
• 68 six eighths, felt as two dotted-quarter pulses (1 & a 2 & a). The bar lasts as long as three quarters.

Pitch is TAB and chord shapes on this room. Meter labels live on Strumming · time signatures. This page is the glue: how long each strum or rest lasts.

A downstroke on the beat in 4/4 is a quarter note. Adding the &s as upstrokes turns those into eighths — that is why island D–DU–UDU works: the hand keeps moving in eighths even when some slices are skipped. Dense sixteenth packs are optional; island eighths come first. Waltz bass-strum-strum is three quarters in 3/4. 6/8 jigs are two pulses of three eighths.

Hold C (or any easy chord) while you Hear / Play on this page. Pattern library: Strumming.

Say the syllables out loud while you play. In 4/4:

Beams (the bars that join eighths and sixteenths) group notes by beat, so the eye can see where 1, 2, 3, and 4 sit. When you write, beam that way too.

Pick a meter, then add notes and rests until the bar is full. The strip is one bar wide. Play bar strums Em on each attack, in time with the metronome’s tempo (quarter note).

Add notes until the bar fills.

To decode 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. Try these 4/4 examples — they should already add to 4.

Four quarters Two halves Dotted quarter + eighth, then two quarters Eight eighths Four sixteenths, quarter, half

Next: lock it to a chord on Strumming, or play a loop on Play along. Piano twin: Note values.