Eighth Note
An eighth note is a filled note head with a stem and one flag, and it lasts half a beat in common time. Two of them fill one quarter-note beat.
When several appear together their flags are joined into a beam, which is easier to read and tells you at a glance how they group. A beam is not a different note value; it is the same eighth notes tidied up.
How To Spot Eighth Note
A filled note with a single flag, or joined to its neighbours by one thick beam.
Find It In Thirty Seconds
Find a beamed group of eighth notes and count "one-and two-and" through it. Say the "and" out loud — the off-beat is where evenness is won or lost.
Open any piece of sheet music on this site and do it now. Reading is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by finding things, not by reading about them.
Related Topics...
How to Read Sheet Music: Learn how to read sheet music using interactive lessons from Chordzy. Or browse our various reading music topics.
Music Notation Glossary: Every symbol on a page of piano music, explained in one sentence each — clefs, note values, rests, accidentals, dynamics and repeat marks.
Eighth Rest: An eighth rest is a small slanted stroke with a single flag, meaning half a beat of silence.
Quarter Note: A quarter note is a filled-in note head with a stem, and it lasts one beat in common time.
Sixteenth Note: A sixteenth note has two flags (or two beams) and lasts a quarter of a beat in common time. Four of them fit into one quarter-note beat.
Triplet: A triplet is three notes played in the time of two of the same value, marked with a small 3 above or below the group.
More in This Section
Fermata: A fermata — the dot under an arc, sometimes called a bird's eye — means hold the note or rest longer than its written value, for as long as the music seems to…