Whole Note

The whole note is hollow or open in the middle. When the note is filled in the middle it is called a closed notehead. A whole note is then referred to as a open notehead.

Half Note

A half note is in the open position but does have a line or a stem attached.

Quarter Note

A quarter note is filled in the middle or in the closed position and has a stem attached.

Eighth Note

An eighth note is in the closed position with a stem and a flag attached. Each flag will double the value so a sixteenth note would have two flags and a thirty-second note would have three flags.

When four eighth notes are together they are beamed, the flags are removed and a horizontal line is drawn to connect them. But they must also be in beats 1,2 or 3,4 of the measure to be beamed. If they are not they must be flagged.

Like the flag the beam doubles the value as well so sixteenth notes have two beams while thirty-second notes have three beams.

Note Stems

The direction of the stems is determined by the notes. All notes lower than the middle line (b) are written with the stem up and all notes higher than middle line are written with the stems down.

The stem on the middle line is determined by the next note. If the next note has a down stem then the middle line stem will be down, if the next note is up then the b stem will be up as well.