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.
Sixteenths are where a piece starts to feel fast, but the tempo has not changed, only the subdivision. Practicing them slowly with a steady count is what makes them even later.
How to spot it
Two flags on the stem, or two thick beams joining a group. Count the beams: one beam is eighths, two is sixteenths.
Find it in thirty seconds
Find a group of four sixteenths and count "one-e-and-a" through it, one syllable per note, as slowly as you like.
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 Note: Eighth Note in piano music. 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 quarte…
Quarter Note: A quarter note on the piano staff: how to spot the filled head, and a thirty-second hunt for one on a real page.
Triplet: Triplet in piano music. 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.
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Slur: Slur in piano music. A slur is a curved line over a group of notes at different pitches, meaning play them smoothly and connected as one phrase.
Staccato: Staccato in piano music. A staccato dot above or below a note head means play it short and detached, roughly half its written length, with silence filling the…
