Time Values

If you think of any melody, you’ll notice the two main elements are:

• Pitch –  how high the notes are
• Duration – how long the notes are

Time values indicate how long a note should be played/held for.

To make this as simple as possible, let’s start with the Crochet.

Crochet

Commonly referred to as Beat, or 1 Beat, this is our starting point.

Minim

If we hold a note for 2 beats (exactly twice as long) it’s called a Minim and it looks like this:

Semibreve

A Semibreve is 4 beats long:

Starting with the Semibreve, we can divide it into 2 Minims, and further divide the Minim into 2 Crochets.

semibreve (4) = 2 minims (2+2)

Minim (2) = 2 crochets (1+1)

Quaver

Notes shorter than crochets have flags that cut their value in half.

• 1 flag: half the value of a crochet
• 2 flags: a quarter of the value of a crochet

A quaver has 1 flag and looks like this:

For example, a crochet = 2 quavers

Semiquaver

A semiquaver has two flags and is worth half a quaver.

Therefore, a Quaver equals two Semiquavers:

American Vs British Terminology

There is confusion over the American and British terms for the different note durations. Essentially, it all comes down to simple math, and that’s why American terminology is more helpful. It calls the note by its mathematical value.

However, we believe every musician should know both.

Use this as a guide:

1 – Semibreve (Wholenote)
2 – Minim (Half note)
4 – Crochet (Quarter note) 
8 – Quaver (Eighth note)
16 – Semiquaver (Sixteenth note)

1	Semibreve	Wholenote
2	Minim	Half note
4	Crochet	Quarter note
8	Quaver	Eight note
16	Semiquaver	Sixteenth note