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EGS Lesson Two  Developing rhythms – introducing half notes and quarter notes

Understanding and playing quarter notes

Quarter Note

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.

Figure 1. A bar of common time consisting only of quarter notes

Figure 1. A bar of common time consisting only of quarter notes

Next: Playing quarter notes