Composers use a range of signs and symbols to convey how they want their music to be played. Learning to recognise these instructions is an important skill to develop.
Part of MusicUnderstanding music
Rhythm is how we describe the duration, or length, of a note or rest, eg how many beats it is worth.
Below is a summary of all the notes and their values. There is a matching rest symbol for each value:
The following video demonstrates basic note values:
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Basic note values
The video below demonstrates how adding a dot to a notes increases its duration by half:
Dotted notes