3 minute read
Change note lengths
Learn how the duration of notes can be modified with dots and ties, and how they fit within multiple time signatures
To properly understand what notes that use dots and ties mean, you first need to brush up on signatures and note duration.
Advertisement
The pace of a piece of music is governed by its time signature. You can see this symbol at the start of any stave, right next to the treble or bass clef. It is usually two numbers such as 4/4 placed on top of one another, but it can differ. The stave is divided up into bars, and so the time signature defines the type and amount of notes (so how many beats) that each bar contains.
Different notes have different durations. A 4/4 time signature means that a bar needs to contain note values in each bar that combine to equal 4 beats, for example four crotchets/quarter notes.
This is where dots and ties come in. Both work to alter the length of a specific type of note. An ‘augmentation dot’ is, rather neatly, a small dot that appears next to a note and instructs you to increase that note’s duration by half. For example, if you saw a dotted crotchet/quarter note, you would need to play the length of the crotchet/quarter note plus half of that duration again (so a half of a crotchet/ quarter note would be an eighth of a semibreve/ whole note).
Ties, on the other hand, work to merge notes of the same pitch. They appear as curved lines which link notes together and can let the duration of notes travel across barriers, such as bars.
Dots and ties examples
A more in-depth look at duration, dots and ties
01 Remember note duration
First is a semibreve/whole note. Two minims/half notes make a semibreve/ whole note, so two crotchets/quarter notes make a minim/half note. Notes smaller than crotchets/quarter notes have flags, and each flag halves the value.
02 Dotted notes
Here is a dotted minim/half note, which lasts three beats, as the dot extends a minim’s value by half. Another crotchet/quarter note is added in to complete the bar’s four beats for the 4/4 time signature.
03 Tied notes
You can see how the tie joins the two notes over a bar. You play tied notes as one long note instead of separately. This example features two crotchets/quarter notes tied together – this enables notes to carry on across bars.
04 Different time signatures
This example shows dots and ties in 4/4 and 6/8 time signatures. Notice how the dots and ties extend a note’s length and then the note durations add up in the bars according to the specific signature.
Dots and ties in action
Discover how these little music markings make a difference
6/8 time In this example of a popular nursery rhyme, a 6/8 time signature is used. This means that there are six beats of quavers/ eighth notes per bar
Top tip All tied up As well as the duration of notes, ties can also be used to carry over accidentals. These are symbols that appear next to notes that tell the reader to play a note sharp, flat or natural. See the next page for more.
Dotted crotchet/quarter note The dot on this crotchet/quarter note extends the note’s duration by half, meaning that it is now extended by a further beat in 6/8 time
Tied up This minim/half note is tied up to a quaver/eighth note, making this D last a total of five beats in compound time, or 2.5 beats in simple time Dotted minim/half note This is probably the most common dotted note, as it lasts for three beats in simple time. In 6/8 time such as this piece, it takes up the whole bar
Double-dotted notes
Adding extra dots means extra time
Once you understand dotted notes, double-dotted notes are easy. The second dot simply extends the note by a further half of the first dot. If a minim/ half note is worth two beats, then a dotted minim/half note would be extended to three beats; a double-dotted minim/ half note would be worth three and a half beats. Look at our examples to see how different note durations could fit into bars of 4/4 time. Triple-dotted notes are also used in notation, which makes a note 1 7/8 of its duration. You probably won’t come across it too much!
