Lesson 34 / 41 9 min
Reading rhythm: notes, rests, dots and ties
Note values from whole notes to 64ths, rests, dots, ties, beaming, syncopation and counting.
Pitch tells you what to play; rhythm tells you when and for how long. Standard notation shows rhythm precisely through the shape of every note and rest. Once you can read it, you can play a song correctly the first time, without having heard it.
If beats, tempo and BPM are new to you, start with Rhythm, tempo and time signatures.
The parts of a note
- Notehead — hollow (white) or filled (black). Its position on the staff gives the pitch.
- Stem — the vertical line. It points up when the note is low on the staff and down when it's high; it doesn't change the rhythm.
- Flags — the little tails on the stem. Each flag halves the note's length.
- Beams — thick lines that replace flags when several short notes are grouped.
Note values
Each value is half as long as the one before. In 4/4 time, a quarter note gets one beat:
| Note | Looks like | Beats in 4/4 | Count it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | Hollow head, no stem | 4 | 1 (2 3 4) |
| Half note | Hollow head with stem | 2 | 1 (2) 3 (4) |
| Quarter note | Filled head with stem | 1 | 1 2 3 4 |
| Eighth note | One flag or beam | ½ | 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & |
| Sixteenth note | Two flags or beams | ¼ | 1 e & a 2 e & a … |
| 32nd note | Three flags or beams | ⅛ | (too fast to count — feel them in groups) |
| 64th note | Four flags or beams | 1⁄16 | (rare; very fast runs) |
There is also a double whole note (breve), worth eight beats, written as a hollow head between two short vertical lines. You'll only see it in slow early music.
Here is one bar of each value, from whole notes to sixteenths, on the open A string. Switch on Click to hear the metronome count you in:
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And 32nd notes — eight in the time of one quarter note — at a slow tempo:
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Rests
Every note value has a matching rest — a silence of the same length. Count rests exactly like notes: the silence is part of the rhythm.
| Rest | Looks like | Beats in 4/4 |
|---|---|---|
| Whole rest | Block hanging below the 4th line | 4 (also: a whole empty bar in any time) |
| Half rest | Block sitting on the 3rd line | 2 |
| Quarter rest | A squiggle | 1 |
| Eighth rest | Like a 7 with one flag | ½ |
| Sixteenth rest | Two flags | ¼ |
To tell whole and half rests apart: the whole rest is "heavier", so it hangs down; the half rest sits up like a hat.
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When a part rests for several bars in a row, scores use a multi-bar rest: a thick horizontal bar with a number above it. You'll see one in Repeats and road maps.
Dots
A dot after a note adds half of its value. A second dot adds half of that again.
| Note | Value |
|---|---|
| Dotted half | 2 + 1 = 3 beats |
| Dotted quarter | 1 + ½ = 1½ beats |
| Dotted eighth | ½ + ¼ = ¾ beat |
| Double-dotted quarter | 1 + ½ + ¼ = 1¾ beats |
The dotted quarter followed by an eighth, and the dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth, are everywhere in music:
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Rests can be dotted too, and they work the same way.
Ties
A tie is a curve joining two notes of the same pitch. You play the first and hold it for the length of both. Ties let a note last across a bar line, or create lengths no single symbol can show. In the tab, the tied note appears in brackets — don't pick it again.
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Tie or slur?
A curve joining two notes of the same pitch is a tie. A curve over notes of different pitches is a slur — it means "play these smoothly", and on guitar usually means hammer-ons, pull-offs or slides. Both appear in Guitar techniques in notation.
Beams and how notes are grouped
Short notes are beamed in groups that show where the beats are. In 4/4, eighths and sixteenths are beamed one beat at a time (sometimes two beats), so you can always see beat 1, 2, 3 and 4. Read each beamed group as a chunk that adds up to one beat:
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In the first bar: two eighths (beat 1), four sixteenths (beat 2), dotted eighth + sixteenth (beat 3), two sixteenths + an eighth (beat 4).
Syncopation
Syncopation means accenting the "&" between the beats, often by tying across a beat or placing longer notes off the beat. The standard way to write it keeps the middle of the bar (beat 3) visible, so the eye can find the beats:
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Counting
Count out loud — it's the most reliable way to read rhythm:
- Quarters: 1 2 3 4
- Eighths: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
- Sixteenths: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
- Triplets: 1 trip let 2 trip let (see the next lesson)
Count every subdivision even during long notes and rests, so you know exactly when the next note starts.
Reading rhythm, step by step
- Set a slow tempo and switch on Click.
- Before playing, tap the rhythm on your leg while counting aloud.
- Play it on one string, then with the real notes.
- Use Loop on a hard bar until it feels natural, then raise the tempo.