This is a half note and that is a whole note. Now you know what they look like, but what do they do, right?
So, in this little chart down here, that looks like a whole big mess but it is actually pretty simple when you think about it.
All these different notes up here, they each have a different set value. So, think of it as like a set amount of time that you are supposed to hold the note for in the piano.
So, with the whole note, you are holding the whole note twice as long as you are holding the half note. So, if you strike the whole note, you will be going (imitates piano sound), but if this is a half note, it would be (imitates piano sound) and then (imitates piano sound), like that.
So, in the spaces that you can play 8/8, you play 1/8 right up here. In the space, you play 1/8, you are playing two of those or you are playing four of these. So, one mark with the whole note, two with the whole note, half note, quarter note, four, eighth note, like this.
I marked one because if you notice, every time you go up, it gets twice as fast. So, the next note is actually a 16th note, then it goes to 32nd note, then 64th, and then 128th note. So, that would be 128 notes that I am not going to draw on a thing under a whole note.
That is the pyramid for this. What else could I tell you about that? Not too much until you know what beats are and everything.
Okay, so that is the value. Just think of it, as it goes up, it is always as twice as fast as the last one. As they go up, you can fit two. So, there are two quarter notes in one half note, and there are two eighth notes in one quarter note. There are also two half note in one whole note.
So, moving on now, we are going to look at beats. So, we have what the notes are and they will be placed where what key you want them, but then you have to know how long they are going to be held for, right? So, you have to be able to count them.
We have this little thing called the time signature. See here? Okay. So, the most basic one is called 4/4. So, there is a four and a four, hence, 4/4.
So, the top number represents—you are going to ask yourself this question. Whenever you look at the top number, how many beats are there per bar? How many beats? So, that is how many beats there are. There are four beats. So, you are going to count to four for this.
So, now we are counting to four for every bar. I will show you what a bar is after this. Now you have to know, you are counting to four but they have different ways of what they are going to count. They might count four of this, or four of this, or four of those, or four of those.
So, this four here corresponds with this four here. This means a quarter note, okay? So, you have how many beats? Four, and you are going to have four quarter notes. So, what is the beat? A quarter note. So, you have four quarter notes. That is it, that is how you are going to look at that.
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