Understanding and playing quarter notes

Quarter Note

Worth one beat.

So let us quickly revise to enable us to develop our understanding of how notes develop their values and names:

1. a whole note is worth a whole bar and is worth four (4) beats;
2. a half note is worth half of a bar and is accordingly worth two (2) beats;
3. therefore it follows that a quarter note is worth a quarter of a bar and is worth one (1) beat.

So where you have one whole note in a bar, you have two half notes and four quarter notes.

A quarter note has a stem like the half note, but you will see that its note head is completely filled in, defining it as a quarter note. Look at our example below and compare to the appearance of whole notes and half notes.

Next: Playing quarter notes

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